


you're something out of the ordinary

by leothequeenn



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: Cashton, Fluff, M/M, Muke - Freeform, and luke is like a romantic, ashton's kinda a nerd, calums kind of a jerk wtf, this is really long, this is really really long sorry haha, witch!michael
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-15
Updated: 2015-02-16
Packaged: 2018-03-13 03:59:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 24
Words: 27,901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3366962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leothequeenn/pseuds/leothequeenn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>the boy was a mystery, but a beautiful one. there would be things that would happen whenever luke started hanging around him more, things that he couldn't explain, and yet, he couldn't resist falling in love with something out of the ordinary.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. un

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



> hi guys! this was written on my fictionpress account (miracat17) and i had originally based the characters of that story that i had written myself off of these guys which is a little embarrassing but i didnt have a place to put the fics i wrote about 5sos anywhere so i twisted them a little to make them fit for different, new characters so i could at least have something close to muke (that was until i remembered ao3) and yeah. so, i really liked the idea and since ive decided on posting 5sos fics now ive decided to change it to back to the original 5sos and post it :D

“Okay, _what_? What the hell happened?” Ashton Irwin and Calum Hood both screamed at their blond friend, who was busy heaving and trying not to pass out. It was lucky that they weren’t there to see him almost on the ground with his phone clutched tightly, but he actually wished that his friends were here, just so they could be freaked out as well. And, well, after what he saw, he was allowed to be afraid of it.

“Okay, so I’m walkin’ right, I’m walkin’, and all of a sudden -- boom! Giant bug flies right in front of my face.”

There’s silence on the other line and Luke Hemmings was worried that they had fallen off their chairs. He was however, right, because in a matter of seconds there was the sound of two thuds along with the phone falling -- and there was _laughter_ that reached Luke’s ears and it pissed him off.

“Oh my god, Luke! That’s so fuckin’ funny,” Calum giggled, finally picking the phone back up.

“Not really, if it were you, you’d be flippin’ shit,” he argued but shrugged it off, looking around himself cautiously. He didn’t want any other bugs climbing up on him or jumping out at him (and, _oh my God_ , he could already _feel_ them and he hated it).

“Hey, don’t swear!” Ashton said out of habit and Luke rolled his eyes, because Calum _just_ swore. “You had us so worried! We thought you had like, seen someone murdered!” he shrieked, probably wiping stupid tears from his eyes. The two continued laughing over the phone and Luke could immediately picture them holding their sides and their faces red, and it didn’t make the blond feel any better about his situation. It was dark outside, only because he had gotten lost in the city, and there were street lamps on but it made everything worse since he could only see for a few feet ahead of him. He had been looking for a little potion shop for this old lady who claimed to be a witch because of Calum, but Calum wasn’t so sure where it was and so he sent Luke out _without_ him -- not that Luke _didn’t_ want to see if it were real either, but still. _Asshole_ , Luke thought sourly.

It was also getting cold out, and Luke pulled away his phone to check the time on the bright screen. _22:32_. He was way past his bedtime (his parents always wanted him home early since he moved to a new city and met the two new friends) but he didn’t know where to go and he was surprised that he was wasting his battery talking to those idiots.

As he rolled his eyes, he stood and continued listening to them laugh before hanging up on them suddenly, because he didn’t want to hear it anymore. He continued walking straight down the sidewalk, avoiding any bugs or anything else that wanted to kill him -- well, almost. If there was a person waiting for him in a dark alley, then he couldn’t really avoid _that_ now could he?

The sidewalk started to end and Luke mentally cursed himself (for the sake of being quiet -- because what if there was someone out there?), because he had followed the cement slabs hoping it would find him to a lit up place, but all it brought him to was the ending of the street, with no other houses close by and the beginning of the woods.

Luke looked around, seeing nothing but black and the moon up in the sky. He lit up his phone again, and he knew that he definitely shouldn’t have followed the sidewalk until it ended. Now he was nowhere, there weren’t any houses around, the sidewalk is gone and he was by the woods. _Alone_.

He was surrounded by trees and a sign that said _‘visitors welcome!’_ that was painted on a piece of wood, which was a little comforting but also terrifying at the same time. And, being a idiot, he started to walk in the woods, looking for someone who had put the visitors welcome sign up. He’s gonna get killed, isn’t he? At least it was comforting to know that Ashton and Calum wouldn’t laugh about that.

The sign was a little worn down, like it had been there for ages, which wasn’t nice to think about and so he tried not to think about it.

He looked up at the swaying trees instead.

The trees acted like an opening that created sort of a canopy-like effect with the leaves and branches. On the ground, there were little rocks smashed into the ground so it was a rocky sidewalk that seemed to be leading him somewhere. Luke checked his phone battery, took a deep breath, and decided it would be best to ask for directions on how to get back to the main road whenever he got to wherever the path led, so he could get back by all the gas stations and houses and you know, _people_ in a matter of an hour, at least.

 _What if there’s no one living out here? What if there is, but the person living here is like, dead -- or worse, a psychopath?_ Luke thought, freaking himself out as he made his way up the pebble sidewalk, _I better not be a part of the Human Centipede…_

Thinking that made him shiver and he wished he could forget that movie and that whole night that Calum had made them watch it ( _“I never want to relive that again--”_ Calum had said as he clicked on the sequel to it on Netflix).

Up ahead he saw a house and he filled up with a little hope, and he ran closer to it. The house looked like one that was too big to even be there, surrounded by all of the tall trees but there was a little space like a front and back yard and Luke found it _amazing_. There were white pillars attached to the porch and there was a garden off to the side and it was incredible on how beautiful it was in the middle of the woods, even if it were dark outside. He still shined his flashlight from his phone (which, still had no signal) onto the house, noticing how the blinds on the inside were closed. He still had the feeling though that he was being watched, and it made shivers go down his spine, but he needed to find a way to get back to the main road. His phone didn’t have any signal, so it wasn’t like he could use a GPS or anything to help him and he didn't know how to get back.

He tried not to think about it too much, anyway. He instead tried on focusing on something else, like the door that was in front of him. The door was black and had one of those fancy handles to knock on it, and Luke hesitantly walked up and reached up to grab it.

There was a bit of a laugh that rang through his ears before he could even grab it, but he didn’t run off like he wanted to -- instead he froze and he turned to the right where he saw an old black cat, laying in one of the rocker chairs the people who own this house have out in front on the porch. “Jesus, you scared me, little guy.”

Luke was still freaked out about the laugh he had heard, but he stepped toward the cat, who hissed and bounced off the chair, scaling the roof like some parkour cat. _What the hell?_

“Fine.” Luke stood there for a moment before rolling his eyes, returning his attention back to the door. He finally allowed himself to knock it, and he placed his hands back in his sweatshirt pocket. It was getting cold out, which wasn’t really fair, but all of a sudden, the door flung open -- and there stood a boy, about the same age as Luke (but maybe a bit older? -- he looked sixteen, at least, but something told Luke he wasn't) in a long, black shirt and boxers.

“Can I help you?”

Luke tried not to stare at his eyes, because even in the moonlight, the boy with the flaming red hair and the pale green eyes looked good. Which was a little weird for Luke to be thinking about, but the redhead’s eyes were entrancing and he couldn’t look away.

“U-Uhm, I was just lost and stumbled m-my way here…” Luke rubbed the back of his neck and Red-Hair Boy seemed to smile, holding the door open wider. Was he inviting him in? There were candles lit that he could see in the background, in the hallway, and the same cat that had hissed at the blond earlier was inside, rubbing up against the red haired boy’s leg. _That’s where you went_ , he thought sourly to the cat.

“Visitors are welcome. Or at least that’s what my grandmother says.” The boy said and immediately Luke shook his head, backing up a little. “Oh come on, I’m not going to murder you.”

“That’s what they all say.” Luke muttered, placing his hands in his pockets. “It’s okay, I’ll find somewhere else--”

“I’m pretty sure that’s not what they say. Unless they actually are killing you -- but they have their weapons ready and everything. Not like I’ve had that happen to me or anything, and I’m not going to murder you. I’m not going to kill you. Trust me, I have better things to be doing than that and getting back to sleep is one of them. I’ve been up late the past three days and I would like to fall back asleep again if you don’t mind.” The red-haired boy grumbled, rubbing his eye for an added effect, and Luke felt a little bad for waking him up. “I’ll let you sleep downstairs. Okay?”

Now Luke was blushing, since this boy was a little cute and he watched the redhead tug at his sleeves. He knew he shouldn’t come in and sleep here, but couldn’t he tell his mother that he was sleeping over at a friend’s house? Sure. It wasn’t like he was going to get much sleep anyway.

“So you’re really lost?” The red-haired boy asked and Luke nodded his head. “Why are you here anyway? Can’t you just use a GPS? Don’t they have those on a phone now?”

 _Oh my god_. Calum wanted to know where this old witch of the town was residing or whatever, and he had sent Luke out without him. _Once I leave this place, I’m definitely taking Cal with me next time to find that witch’s house, because I am definitely not going to do it alone anymore._

He could’ve easily given up and used his phone as a GPS – Google maps, maybe -- and he could’ve gotten to the main road before his battery could die and he could’ve found someone else to talk to. Not that that crossed his mind before he got out of service range, which pissed him off because why _hadn’t_ he thought of that? Oh wait. He did. He was just stupid enough to try and do it whenever _there wasn't any signal_.

Though, it wasn’t that hanging around the beautiful house wasn’t a good idea – oh, who was he kidding? It was _definitely_ a bad idea. But there wasn’t any signal there and he definitely didn’t feel like walking back outside in the bitter, fall air and that made everything worse. He had lost the main sidewalk anyway, since it ended a few miles back as he was walking down the little rock sidewalk (that ended up taking forever) so it wouldn’t matter.

“You mean you don’t have a phone?” Luke asked and the redhead glared up at him, as if saying _think about it, blondie_. “Right,” he said, finally understanding why he was looking at him like that, and he checked his phone, “no signal. You wouldn’t be able to use it here. But still, don’t you leave the house? Wouldn’t you have to have one?”

“I guess. I don’t have one, though. So, no GPS?” the other boy asked, trudging up the stairs without an answer to go and find some blankets for his visitor.

“Yeah, I didn’t think about it…” Luke answered back aimlessly, walking inside after one more 'come in' from him, and he closed the door behind him politely. He looked around the hallway, looking up the stairs and seeing a door right in front. He wondered whose room that was.

It took a moment, but once the teenager returned with blankets and a pillow and walked down the stairs, he led the blond to a living room.

“You’ll be sleeping here,” he muttered more to himself than the blond, and Luke nodded, taking off his shoes and sitting down on the comfy couch. He looked around the room as silence came between them, and Luke sighed, resting his head against the pillow he had received.

He looked over at the windows. The curtains were like a silky, translucent kind of material, and there were four windows parallel to the couch. It was pretty nice and he could see the moon behind the trees – barely, though, but still enough to see its rays peeking through. He couldn’t really see the color of the walls or the all of the photographs in the frames that were everywhere, but he knew he could see a little bit of the boy’s face in some of them, and Luke felt his heart leap as the boy tucked him in. There was one picture that caught his eye, and it was of a child -- Luke wasn’t sure if it were him or not -- but the child was in a long, black dress and had crazy hair.

“There. Are you comfortable?” The redhead asked and he nodded, feeling like that little child in the pictures. He wondered if the redhead had a sister, since the child was wearing a dress. Though, it did look like the redhead, even down to the same smile with the curled up lips.

Luke looked up and noticed how the redheaded boy was smiling at him, albeit tiredly, and he felt a little bad. “Yeah, it’s perfect, thank you. Who is that in the picture?” The blond pointed to the picture on the mantle, above the fireplace, the one where he could see the boy in the picture, thanks to the moon. The child looked a little odd, wild hair, a crazy smile, all tucked away in a black, stiff dress that looked too uncomfortable.

“Uh, it’s me. I was, I think… Maybe ten? At least.”

Luke laughed a little and it fell silent again as the boy tended to his pillows next and Luke felt a little bad. “That was you?” he asked, and the redhead ducked his head away.

“Yeah, my grandmother wanted me to wear that.”

Once the conversation felt like it was over, the red-haired boy stood up, the moonlight illuminating his hair and Luke could see again how bright of a red it was. It was definitely dyed. The boy however looked satisfied with his work of a bed and he started to say goodnight and walk off.

“Hey, do you know…” Luke paused, wondering if he should even continue, but he ended up blurting it out anyway regardless of any consequences, “about the rumors or something of an old lady who’s supposedly a witch? Do you know where she lives, or…?”

Luke could physically see the other hold his breath as he stopped on his tracks. The redhead turned his head back to look at the blond tucked away in fluffy blankets. The mysterious boy had a smile on his face; the light from the candles and the moon made his face creepier than Luke wanted it to be and he was worried that he might’ve said something wrong.

“Oh, you silly child,” the boy muttered. “Don’t you know witches don’t exist?”

And the candles in the room instantaneously blew out and Luke gripped onto the sheets, watching his silhouette walk up the stairs; Luke listened to the stairs creaking under the redhead’s weight, and he was shaking underneath the covers more than he was willing to admit.

_Weird. Okay, this isn't a good idea._

Too bad he didn’t have signal and he was far too comfortable to venture outside in the cold again to try and find some place else. He didn’t even know if the door was unlocked and he didn’t want to wake up that poor unnamed boy again. But why was he so comfortable here? Maybe it was the way the house seemed so friendly, so welcoming and warm, but that wasn’t right at all. He should be scared out of his mind, and he definitely would be lying if he said the candle thing didn’t freak him out at all.

He did, however, will himself to fall asleep, even if he were thinking about he was dumb enough not to use his GPS on his phone. He completely forgot about it – and the fact that he was perhaps a white girl in a horror movie didn’t make things better, and he was probably going to get killed in his sleep – or worse, in the morning when he could feel it more.


	2. deux

A few hours after he had fallen asleep, he smelled and overwhelming smell of something nice, something sweet and intoxicating and it smelled like pine and gingerbread and things Christmas-y and it was so _pepperminty_ and _great_. But it wasn’t even Halloween – it was still September, actually – and someone was already cooking gingerbread men? And at midnight or whatever time it was? _Come on._

But as he opened his eyes and glanced around, he noticed that there were two candles lit up on the coffee table next to the couch. The windows were opened and the curtains were blowing, making the candle flame flicker. He suddenly took in that _oh my God_ , there was someone sitting on the table next to the candles and that scared the shit out of Luke since he didn’t expect it. He screamed, falling off the couch and onto the wooden floor with a loud thud.

“Don’t do that!” Luke said after a moment followed by a groan that emitted from his mouth, since he figured it was just that redheaded kid sitting on the table. Actually, no, he was _sure_ it was and he poked his head out of the blankets.

The red-haired boy laughed cheerfully, even though Luke could tell he hadn’t gotten any sleep since he last saw him. “Sorry, I was cooking something, um, upstairs and I messed it up big time. So I lit some candles – well, all of the candles – so it didn’t smell bad.”

“You only lit two.”

“Look around you, blondie, they’re spread around the house. The windows are opened too.”

 _Blondie?_ Who did this cherry-head think he was? _Blondie? Come on, you can come up with something better than that._

The red-haired boy shoved something thin and black in his pocket, and Luke perked up at the sight of it.

“What was that?” Luke asked, still a little terrified about how still the red-haired boy was after shoving the writing utensil in his pocket. And, yeah, he was still a little pissed at ‘Blondie’.

“Nothing, it’s just a marker.” _Oh no_ , he didn’t draw anything on him, did he? The redhead seemed to pick up on that thought and he said, “I didn’t draw a dick on you or anything, don’t worry. Though, that would’ve been funny. I would’ve drawn it on your forehead, or near your mouth.”

_Oh gee. Thanks. Because that’s what you really do when you have visitors..._

“I did doodle on you a little though,” he seemed to shift his shoulders back and forth, playing with his sleeves and ducking his head and Luke wondered what he doodled. It was a little cute seeing the redhead do that, move his body back and forth and those things like that, and Luke sat up a little and the redhead seemed to move closer to him.

“I thought you were supposed to be sleeping?” Luke asked, arching an eyebrow over at him. “I thought you were gonna sleep instead of cooking something?”

“Tried. I couldn’t. I thought cooking something in the attic would calm me down and then I would go to sleep, but obviously, that didn’t work.” He admitted sheepishly, watching the other boy and Luke felt weird having the redhead keep his eyes on him. The boy moved a candle, placing it in front of him with a smile on his face.

Luke laughed a little nervously, because the smile was kind of cute but the candle illuminated his face and he looked a little scary because of it.

Luke rubbed his eyes though as he sat up a little straighter, trying to make it seem like he didn’t want to hide away from the other boy’s stare.

“When you sleep, you drool.” The redhead pointed out and Luke stared at the floor, wiping his mouth.

_Oh fuck, that’s embarrassing._

“Shut up, you’re the creepy one, watching me sleep and shit.” He said, looking back at the boy on the table. “So, what were you cooking anyway?”

“Eh, that’s not really important. What’s important is that it’s burnt and I’m sad.” The red-haired boy muttered and Luke wanted to hug him as he pouted, but they both ended up staring at the flickering flame instead. Luke could start to tell that the other boy wanted to do something involving the fire, and that made the blond feel worse about his situation.

It was silent between them for a while before the sky started to get a bit lighter, changing from a pitch black to a darkish blue. It was a bit fascinating to watch and it told Luke that it was around three in the morning, or something like that, but he could barely see past the trees.

“So, do you really believe in magic and witches and stuff like that?” The boy asked after a moment and it startled the blond, but he instead shrugged.

“I mean… I guess? My friend just wants to know where the old lady witch thing lives, since he really likes finding those kind of things out. Well, kind of. He doesn’t really like them.” Luke said honestly and the redhead laughed.

“Then why are you here instead of your friend?”

“That’s a good question.” Luke sighed, looking up at the ceiling. His head rested up against the couch, and it felt great even though his tailbone was digging into the hard tile floor.

The redhead hummed. “Something tells me that you haven’t been here long.”

“What could tell you that?” Luke asked with a smile appearing on his face as he looked back over at him. The redhead caught sight of it and started to flash that same smile before he shrugged it off.

“She’s dead though, been dead for a while.” he muttered, looking at the blond and he kept a straight face to keep from his cheeks matching his hair. “Alright, look. She’s been dead for, like, a century. And she was a witch, or at least that was what people said. Her daughter though, was normal due to a curse that was placed upon them, or whatever. That part of the story always changes, but it had to be a curse.”

The redhead shifted on the table and Luke watched him, wanting to listen to his story so that he could tell Calum it later. Or did Calum already know it? Whatever, he didn’t really care.

“There are many stories where some evil thing wanted the witch race to die out or whatever. It didn’t really make sense and it still doesn’t, so I’m leaving that part up to you. Anyway, so we got a witch mother and a normal child. But then, to add onto that, the normal child, _her_ daughter, she was a witch. The magic skips a generation and it was all due to that stupid curse, I guess. But then, the witch’s daughter was normal too.”

Luke grew interested in the storyline, because what was going to happen? Did the witch race die out? Calum never told him these things because he hated witches. He never wanted to talk about them because of that _thing_ that happened to him, and frankly, Luke hated that. He was the one out here in the first place because of Calum, the least the Kiwi boy could do was tell him the story of it.

“And it kept going until eighteen years ago, there were also rumors about a normal daughter leaving her son because he was in the generation of being a witch, and she knew that. Or at least that was what people said. But yeah, no one has found this son and not everyone even believes he’s real - he’s probably dead, to be honest, since most of the witches were female. If you had a son, you’d be fine, but if you didn’t and you were normal, the daughter was probably a witch. So it was peculiar that the son had been a witch.”

The redhead paused, looking at the ceiling, then the fire, then back to Luke.

“It’s just a myth though, so whatever.” The redhead explained, shrugging his shoulders. Luke had listened with great interest and it seemed to deflate his mood when the boy ended up with the part of it being a myth. “… I mean, you don’t honestly believe that, do you?”

“I might, I’m just as curious as my friend, especially about this kind of thing. Plus he has this reason for it and he just won’t really stop until he knows everything about it. He thinks a bunch of witches killed his mother so...” Luke answered, shrugging his shoulders as well to mimic the other boy. The redhead froze a little but rolled his eyes, keeping quiet. “It was an interesting story regardless of if it were a myth or not.”

“Ah, but you’re just being nice now.” The red-haired boy said, a smile creeping on his face and Luke felt a little ping in his heart. “But I should probably let you get to sleep. You look like shit.”

That ping stopped immediately after hearing that, but that didn’t stop Luke from rolling his eyes. “So loving,” he deadpanned, biting back any witty response to the redhead’s statement, and he got back up, sitting back on the couch and staring up at the ceiling again. “So, will I ever know your name?—“ he looked back over at the table, and the boy by the candles was gone. The rest of the candles were blown out, besides the one that he was holding. The candle flame for that specific candle remained still before it blew out due to the open windows.

There was no _fucking_ way that boy left that fast, and Luke would’ve heard him if he had been running or something along those lines.

_What the fuck?_


	3. trois

In the morning, Luke heard the redhead’s voice next to his ear – “ _Wakey wakey, Lukey Lukey_.”

Luke was suddenly startled awake, since _oh my God_ , he knew his name? And he was already making pet names?

It also didn’t help that the redhead tugged on his blanket, either.

The boy next to him laughed as Luke fell off the couch, since he was so used to his bed being bigger than a loveseat, and he landed on the redhead who happened to be sitting by the couch, making them close to each other. Closer than what Luke had wanted, at least.

They even clashed skulls and the redhead groaned, falling back on his back. Luke swallowed roughly, feeling a little bad and so he reached over, lifting the redhead up so he would sit up properly -- and oh, the redhead chose he was going to sit on his lap, _great_ \-- and Luke noticed they were _extra_ close to each other now. “Sorry,” he apologized and the redhead rubbed his head.

“It’s okay.” The redhead then smiled and Luke noticed how bright it got outside, which he was shocked at because of all the trees. “You’re even cuter in sunlight.”

Luke brushed his statement off, blushing a bit and staring at him.

“Also, you want your phone?” The redhead held the device up, and Luke noticed it was fully charged. “I heard it vibrating before it died and I figured you needed it and so I went out to the main road and bought a phone charger for you. I think I got the right one, I don’t like being out of the house for too long.” he said.

The redhead stared at him like he expected a prize for his gratitude – and Luke should’ve found it a little insulting since he didn’t _have_ to do it, but he just couldn’t feel like that and the redhead was more endearing than anything else. Luke took his phone, telling him thank you and the redhead nodded.

“You have like, forty new messages or something stupid like that. It was annoying hearing it go off every two seconds.” He looked at the redheaded boy, finally being able to take in his features now that he was super close to him and it was light outside. He had a pale face but it was gorgeous and he had dark lips that were probably super kissable and those pale green eyes that Luke suddenly liked looking at, just like last night. They seemed to soak in the sunlight and Luke was starting to get a little envious of it.

Luke heard someone coming down the stairs and he was more worried about that than the messages he had on his phone. Those same eyes that seemed to bathe in the light turned to the direction of the sound, and it was a little obvious that the redhead was a tad bit defensive that their moment (if he could even call it that) had been ruined by the person walking down the stairs. He looked like a cat that was pissed, and Luke knew that if the redhead was a cat, his red ears would be flat against his head and his nose would be scrunched up, and he would hiss like there was no tomorrow.

“How did you know my name?” Luke asked quietly and the boy pointed to his phone. _Oh, right_. His friends probably repeated his name – full name and all – repeatedly. His mother probably did too. _So that was how he knew_.

The redhead untangled himself as the walking down the stairs stopped – or at least, he tried to untangle himself from the blond, since Luke kept him close to him and Luke didn’t really know why he hung on him. Maybe because the person coming down the hallway would kill him and he wanted the redhead to protect him. The redhead looked back at him, arching an eyebrow. The look was almost a little hot, not like Luke was going to lie or anything, but he tried not to think about that too much.

“Grandmother,” the redhead sighed, turning back to look at her as she walked in. The boy’s grandmother with the crazy, frizzy gray hair and black dress with a high collar made her way into the room with sophistication, unlike her appearance. She noticed the two boys trapped in blankets on the floor and she gave a knowing smirk, tutting her lips and walking into the kitchen.

Luke was a little glad that the kitchen was joined with the living room – in fact, the whole downstairs was open with barely any doors – so that when she started speaking, Luke could hear her perfectly fine. “Oh, tsk tsk, why didn’t you tell me that we had visitors, my little precious owl?”

Luke knew she was talking to the redhead and he instead played with his lip ring as a comforting mechanism, since the red-haired boy groaned a little again. Luke couldn’t help but think that maybe the grandmother was going to kill him or something, but instead she just laughed as she continued busying herself up with pots and pans.

“How long were you up to notice and let our guest in?” she smiled over her shoulder at the two boys, and it was a warm smile, full of love and it reminded Luke of his mother. “Ah, what’s your name, darling?”

Luke squeaked out his full name, and the grandmother turned back to him. She stepped a little closer, a smile on her face before she saw him clearer. Luke flinched as she did, and the boy with the bright red hair grabbed onto him, pulling himself closer to him. The smile dropped from the grandmother’s face.

“A-ah, darling, I’m not going to hurt you…” she mumbled, glancing at the brunet boy. “You just remind me of my husband, that’s all.” The boy next to him groaned again, much louder to get his point across, falling back on his back and taking Luke with him and it was very, very awkward since now the boy was straddling his hips. Luke looked over at the mantle behind him, and indeed, he saw an older looking picture with a girl, a _beautiful_ girl, really, next to an equally handsome guy. Yep, blond hair, fair skin, just like Luke.

 _Seems legit_.

“Grandmother, please,” the redhead stared up at the ceiling. The old woman laughed, asking him and Luke what they wanted for breakfast like Luke was just a simple friend.

Luke almost didn’t want to tell her he should probably be on his way.

“Sorry about her,” the redhead whispered after the grandmother insisted that Luke had to eat before leaving for his journey and headed back into the kitchen, humming out some lovely tune, “that crazy old bat.”

“What was that?” The grandmother asked from the kitchen and Luke stifled a laugh.

“Nothing!”

Luke finally let out a little laugh, watching the redhead boy with a smile on his face. “So,” he mumbled and the other boy purred out a hum for his response. Hearing that made the blond blush and the redhead snickered. He couldn’t help it, the boy was already straddling his hips.

_This family’s weird._

“Will I ever get to know your name?”

“Mm, maybe.” The redhead replied, yawning a little and Luke felt bad that he hadn’t gotten any sleep. And so, he did what no stranger should ever do and he repositioned himself, stretching his long legs out and holding the other close. There was a look of confusion on his face, but he soon seemed to understand what Luke was doing and he rested his head on his shoulders, hiding his face away from the blond.

“You really are tired, aren’t you? Go to sleep. I’ll wake you up whenever our pancakes are ready.” Luke said, running his fingers through the boy’s red locks.

“You’re so kind,” the other boy mumbled, cuddling closer to the taller boy, and he felt a little ping in his heart. The redhead should’ve been disturbed by all of this; hell, _Luke_ should’ve been disturbed by all of this but he _wasn’t_ and it was getting harder to think about leaving. Which is crazy talk. Absolute crazy talk.

The grandmother snickered from the kitchen as Luke felt the redhead’s breathing slow, becoming peaceful and quiet after a few moments. He wanted to ask the grandmother why he wasn’t freaking out but the words never came out, and so he sat there quietly until the older woman spoke from the kitchen.

“Ooh, that silly owl.” The gray-haired woman said, a small smile on her face. “Always staying up past his bedtime, falling asleep as dawn appears over the trees.”

It was quiet for a moment, peaceful and wonderful and Luke sighed.

“He must really like you,” she said warmly, before quickly adding, “he doesn’t like people touching him -- well, he doesn’t really like people at all since he’s never tried to communicate with them. But you must be special.”

Silence. There was the sound of something mixing with a wooden spoon and it made Luke think of home.

“I don’t know what you did to earn it, but I think you just might’ve done it.”

Luke listened to her as she mixed the pancake batter, and he couldn’t help but smile as the woman continued on about him as a baby. The boy on him smelled like vanilla and a weird mix of gingerbread and sea kelp, but it somehow smelled good and Luke found himself to be intoxicated in the smell.

 _This wasn’t right_ , a nagging thought kept tugging at his mind, _I shouldn’t be enjoying this and I should be leaving…_

He wrapped his arms around the boy’s back anyway, resting his chin on his shoulder and he looked at the back of his hand, noticing a symbol drawn the marker that the redhead had in his pocket. It was like a V placed on top of a line, or like a straighter and not as curved trident. What even was that? He didn’t really want to know. It was a bit faded though, which was weird. When had the redhead last put it on?

As soon as he heard the pancakes cooking, he looked around the room, disregarding the symbol for now to instead stare at the photos on the mantle. There were a lot more than he had expected, now that he could see some that were hanging up on the walls. A lot of them were the redhead before he dyed his hair, whenever he was younger, but there were a lot of recent ones with him having other different colors. If he could see clearly, there was a recent one with the redhead in the black dress.

Weird. His grandmother must really like black dresses.

There were some pictures of the grandmother, wearing that same black dress, too, and he wondered if it were tradition.

There was that cat that jumped down from the couch and it scared him, but he realized that that was the same cat from outside – it must have been theirs. He felt the black cat nuzzle up against his head as he looked at the photos on the mantle again, quietly entranced in the photographs. There were dozens of pictures of the boy with his grandmother, the grandmother’s wedding photos and such and it just made Luke feel peaceful – just like the boy sleeping on him and he didn’t want to leave.


	4. quatre

By the time breakfast was over, Luke still wasn’t able to face the now growing inbox on his phone, and he pocketed it, thanking the grandmother – whose name was Eloise, which he had learned over pancakes and bananas – for breakfast. “Of course, darling.” She had said with a smile on her face.

Luke slipped on his shoes that were by the couch where he had left them, saying that he should probably get going, his parents were worried. He pulled out his phone and tapped out in a mass message: _**‘I’m coming home, sorry Im fine but I slept over at a friend’s and my phone was dead sorry again’**_. He had sent it to his mother, Calum, and Ashton because he knew they were worried. The redhead nodded his head at Luke’s statement before grabbing his marker once more.

“Wait, it faded… Hang on,” he mumbled, tracing over the weird symbol Luke had noticed before. He then kissed the blond’s hand where the symbol was and there was a shock that jolted through Luke and up his spine. He wasn’t sure if that was because of the redhead’s kiss or something else. “Oh, and one more thing,” he smirked and he turned the boy’s hand over, palm up.

The redhead started writing on his wrist: _Michael_.

“Goodbye, Luke,” Luke could tell that the other boy wanted to say something else and didn’t, and the blond stood there for a moment, waiting just to make sure. He smiled to encourage him, and the boy hesitated before saying, “come back soon.”

And with that, the redhead walked up the stairs, only to have Luke walk out the door with one last call of goodbye. He looked at the word that strange boy wrote on his wrist and the smile he had on his face grew bigger.

He felt like someone was watching him as he walked out, and he looked back only to see something painted in black above the door – the same symbol Luke had on his wrist – and the smile didn’t last long. What was so important about this symbol? He shook it off anyway, turning back and following the pebble sidewalk that he had been too scared to walk at night. He surprisingly made his way back to the main road with the directions that his grandmother had written out, and he opened the Google maps app on his phone, quickly taking a screenshot of where the GPS had located him. If the redhead really wanted him to come back, then he would have to keep that promise.


	5. cinq

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> still cant believe ashton thought turtles had tadpoles

By the time Luke had gotten home, he was immediately bombarded by his mother, his adopted sister and his two friends who happened to all be saying the same thing even if he had sent out a message explaining where he was – but they were all, granted, saying it in different variations. Some words that exited Calum’s mouth was enough to cause Liz to hit her son’s friend on the back of the head, though, and Calum pouted at her before continuing (watching his mouth, however).

“I just had gotten lost due to _this_ idiot” -- he gestured to Calum -- “and my friend took me in for the night. I’m fine. I even got breakfast too.” Luke mumbled, a bit sad since he had actually _fucking missed_ the redhead and he kept repeating his words over and over: _come back soon, come back soon_. He’d definitely have to, because it was the only thing he could think about (besides getting to know him more, which was also one thing that he could think about).

Was he like Romeo? Because wasn’t this something Romeo did? Or was he just fucking with himself? Or was it even cornier that he was comparing himself to the Shakespearean teenager? Okay, no more with that nonsense. Luke was better than that – though, he was a shameless romantic -- but he wouldn’t be _that_ shameful. He didn’t even want to die in the end anyway.

Calum rolled his eyes but caught sight of the faded symbol the redhead – _Michael_ – had drawn on him. “What’s this?” he asked and held it up for his boyfriend to see, only to see the name Michael had also written. “Who’s Michael?”

“He’s the boy I’m friends with. I don’t know what the symbol is, though, but it’s, like, painted all over his house in random, weird spots. Like who paints this symbol above their door frame?” Luke mumbled aimlessly, still wondering about whether or not the boy was thinking of him. He felt better if he thought Michael did, though.

“Ashton, I think you know what this is? Isn’t that those weird—“

“Runic alphabet. Norse.” Ashton recited after a moment and it was a bit scary how he knew that, but he was always interesting in learning something new, and Luke figured he was into this runic alphabet along with all of its meanings. Calum never really understood it, but Ashton apparently would talk to him about stuff Cal had no idea even existed. Ashton’s excuse was that he always liked learning things, liked reading things. “Can we take him up to his room?” Ashton asked Liz and even though she was more interested in wanted to talk more about how _dangerous_ it was for him and Luke was _definitely_ grounded, she nodded and his friends took him upstairs, Calum’s grip tightening on Luke’s wrist.

They opened the door and plopped the blond down on his bed. He played with his black comforter nervously, because an old Norse alphabet didn’t make him feel better about anything. Was he cursed?

But, he didn’t really think that the redhead would do that and that was what made him uncomfortable.

“Alright, if I remember correctly… It’s a rune. Runic alphabet, of course, but it’s also used in magic, too, or for other reasons, too.” The smaller blond waved his hands as he talked, sitting down in Luke’s computer chair after a moment of getting raised eyebrows from Luke and Calum. “Okay, so that specific one… That’s an Elhaz, or an Algiz rune. They’re the same thing, different name. Used in magic for protection of yourself and your property, so it’s like a guard or a protector, that kind of thing.”

_It’s a protection rune used in magic. Oh my god._

“I’d have to look up if I’m even right, but I think that’s what it is…” Ashton said, shrugging a shoulder. “But that also means whoever did it was powerful enough, or it didn’t even work and you just walked around and nothing wanted to bother you. But, of course, it’s probably the latter.” he said like he could sense the blond getting antsy with the new information. “It’s probably just a symbol the family uses like a superstition kind of thing, y’know? But maybe it’s not?”

Luke sat there in silence as Ashton stopped his talking, looking at him and they looked at each other for a few moments. Calum and Ashton looked at each other after that and Ashton played with his bracelets – something Luke took note of, since he would do that whenever he was nervous. Calum’s hands were starting to shake, because this was a touchy subject for him and Luke knew that. His mother was killed by witches, since she was the one hunting them. Luke’s heard that story so many times and it was sad, but magic wasn’t real. Michael said it wasn’t.

This whole magic rune thing was getting to him and he knew the others could tell, because he really didn’t want to believe that the redheaded boy was a – _no_. He wasn’t even going to say it. Michael didn’t even _believe_ in witchcraft.

“Ashton, who was the boy who was abandoned by his mother, what was his name--?” Calum started to ask but Luke shook his head, interrupting him and making him fall short of his question.

“No, no, that’s just a myth and this is just a stupid symbol.” The other two paused, looking at the youngest blond, before the curly-haired boy turned the chair around, typing in the password for Luke’s computer and he opened up a browser.

“It’s not just a stupid symbol,” he hissed under his breath, typing in the word that he had called it, and Calum tried his hardest not to roll his eyes. “Okay, see? Look. I was right. It’s a protection rune.”

“Okay, okay,” Luke put his hands up defensively. “But that doesn’t mean anything.”

“You said the rune was also painted on their house. Why do you think that is?” Ashton replied with an arched eyebrow and Luke grumbled something under his breath. Why was Ashton good at remembering things? Well, he was at least able to retain information. Though, Luke could bet money that he would try and find out how to fix the problem the person was struggling with, but most of the time he wanted to learn things on her own and research various topics because that was what Ashton did.

“Probably just a superstition, like you said. But the whole witch thing is a lie, anyway, and you know it’s just a myth.” Luke argued, glancing over at his friends. “Google the story – you’re not gonna find anything but myths and impossible things because it’s a – _oh_ , Ashton, get _off_ of Google!” Ashton shamefully turned away from the computer, pouting a bit at the other blond before rolling his eyes.

“Nothing wrong with Googling. Is 'googling' even a word?-”

“The myth has been continued down for a century, Luke,” Calum said, interrupting his boyfriend and the blond paused, looking away from him.

“So have other myths, but that doesn’t mean they’re true. Greek gods, Chinese gods, things like that. All myths were passed down for centuries because they had to start somewhere.” Luke muttered, looking down at his hands.

After a moment, Calum said, “Take us down to the house.”

“No.” Luke muttered, looking at his friends again. “Calum, I don’t want you searching for something that’s not going to exist. I don’t want you hurting anyone thinking they’re a witch because your mother happened to die.”

_Ooh, ouch. Touchy subject._

Calum crossed his arms and looked over at Ashton, who also happened to mock his boyfriend’s stance. _Come on, Ashton, knock some fucking sense in your boyfriend…_ “Look, all I’m saying is that I’m not taking either of you to the house. I’m not going back to the house either,” Luke lied, trying to get them to calm down. He felt a little prick in his hand, his right hand, and he looked away from it. He knew it was something to do with the rune, but he wanted to ignore it for now.

There was finally a burning sensation and he flinched, wincing at the pain. He looked down at his hand where the burning feeling had been at and watched as the ink faded away, more than it already had, evaporating – painfully, might he add – into his skin.

The two saw and even though he really didn’t want to hear it, Calum said, “We gotta go that fuckin’ house man.”

Luke rubbed his hand where the rune was. _Damn it, damn it._ He wondered how it could even do that, like Michael had been listening or something.

But… How would he be able to do that? Or maybe the rune was able to only last a certain amount of time?

That was probably why he had to reapply it with marker.

Either way, he didn’t want to know, and he didn’t want to move. But, of course, that was a short-lived wish when the two grabbed him, and he ended up getting to his feet and walking out the front door – unknown to Liz and Luke’s adopted sister.


	6. six

Luke couldn’t believe he was dragged into the situation again, staring ahead as the GPS led him to where he reached the woods, so he could shut it off and walk into the depths of the trees. As soon as he took a step on the pebble sidewalk, walking past the _Visitors Welcome_ sign, he got the feeling someone was watching him again. The three headed into the woods, hand in hand, and Calum was beside him mumbling about how it was creepy.

Like he didn’t know that already.

Luke ignored him, though, pocketing his phone before grabbing onto Ashton’s hand. He grabbed on immediately, but it wasn’t like he was as scared, and he clung onto Calum as well, and Luke saw Calum smile a little. The three made their way up to the porch of the big house and Ashton sighed beside Luke. He took in all of the windows and the size of the door, and took in the rocking chairs and the little garden by the side of the house – _that maybe led into the backyard?_ —that Luke hadn’t noticed before at night.

“This house is beautiful—“

“And creepy—“ Calum interrupted his boyfriend and he shot him a pointed look that definitely told him to shut up.

“And you were right, Luke, the rune is above their doorway in black ink – well, black paint, actually. It’s a little cool.” Ashton gestured to the symbol above the door and Luke shuddered a little.

The fact that the symbol had disappeared after he said that he wouldn’t go back to the house was a little unnerving and he didn’t really like it. What if there were more symbols that represented something horrible somewhere?

Ashton turned to look at the windows. “There’s actually little ones of that symbol painted on the glass, too. And on the pillars, but they’re only sketched on in pencil or whatever, instead of paint. I can see them from here.” he noted, and he sounded ashamed that he noticed all of that. Luke noticed that Calum smiled at his boyfriend, watching him with a certain fondness in his eyes that almost made the blond a little jealous. Luke found Ashton interesting, though, since for twenty years he didn’t know turtles laid eggs, but he was just oddly observant and liked learning things, and so Luke didn’t say a word.

“It still amazes me how you’re able to pick all of that up and I can’t even remember what I had for breakfast yesterday,” Calum mumbled beside them and Ashton blushed, ducking his head.

“Eggs and cereal, idiot…” Ashton answered. Luke found that a little endearing.

Luke leaned up, knocking on the door anyway even though Calum launched into something about eggs and bacon and how he was hungry, and the boy with the bright red hair opened the door. Michael had a smile on his face when he saw the familiar blond, but it faded slightly when he saw the other two and he nervously shifted behind the door. “You’re back -- oh. You're with _people_.” he said sadly, a little bittersweet, to the blond and Luke shrugged.

“They wanted to see your house, I don’t know.” he said flatly and Michael’s smile dropped completely, dropped into a faint scowl and Luke was suddenly a bit weary of the boy.

“Okay.” he answered quietly.

The two others started to walk in first – but as soon as they passed the door frame, they hissed and stumbled back, clutching onto their chests like they had been burned there. As soon as they stepped back on the grass, they were fine and Calum asked quietly if Ashton was okay. Luke arched an eyebrow, looking at the redhead.

“But what if I don’t want you two to come in?” The redhead arched an eyebrow and it fell silent between the four. Luke noticed that Michael’s hands were behind his back and his head tilted to the side slightly; his green eyes were as striking as a viper’s and Luke had to physically back up because he thought that Michael would actually strike like the snake.

“I’ll come visit you every day if you let them see your house.” Luke tried to compromise with the redhead. “They’re intrigued and I’m sure this isn’t helping their curiosity.” he growled, only Michael didn’t move and Luke was now panicking. What the hell had happened? Michael made himself look terrifying but the blond could tell he was shaking, and so he quietly added, “they’re not going to hurt you, I promise you, Michael.”

Michael paused, staring at the two behind Luke. Luke repeated his sentence and Michael sighed after a moment, luckily believing the blond. Luke watched as Michael mumbled something underneath his breath.

“…Alright, alright. Sorry. H-Here, you can come in now. Sorry again for my temper. I don’t like people very much.” Michael said tiredly, stepping off toward the side.

The other two hesitated – Ashton even clutched onto his chest again – before walking inside the house, perfectly unharmed that time.

“My grandmother will be in the kitchen, she’s making cookies. Listen to her carefully and follow all of her rules – she’s a strict woman, the old bat. No going in the basement, the attic, or her room or my room. You know how it is with going over at people’s houses. Or at least I hope.”

The two walked off toward the direction of the aroma of chocolate, still very shocked at what happened to them earlier and Luke started to step up into the house, only stopped when Michael put a hand on his chest, pushing him back outside. “Um, not you. Can I talk to you for a moment?”

Luke shrugged, and even though he didn’t want to admit it – Michael touched him and he couldn’t help but have his cheeks flush with color. Michael stepped up, closing the door behind him like they were going to have a friendly chat, but the redhead kicked an invisible rock and stared at the ground.

“Your symbol is gone,” the redhead said after a moment and Luke shrugged again only to have Michael look up at him, his expression looking like he could rip his arms off of his shoulders if he shrugged again. “They do that. They fade away after a certain period of time. Not sure why.” That wasn't really comforting, to say the least, and Luke didn’t like where this was going. “Did you at least know what it was?” He asked and Luke nodded his head.

“A protection rune or something like that,” Luke answered and Michael stood a little closer to him. “Why did you draw it on me?”

“I was bored.”

“So it doesn’t actually work?”

“No, of course not.”

“Why is it drawn all over your house?” The question seemed to silence the redhead and smack the smug smile he had on his face right off. “You can tell me why and I’ll let it go,” he promised as he pulled the other boy closer like it was the most natural thing that he could do – and even his grandmother said that he could use the fact that Michael must like him to his advantage.

The redhead pulled away after a moment, after Luke asked to know why again, and he was kind of glad he did because he couldn’t keep touching him – he didn’t even know him.

“It’s just a little symbol I draw to make myself think my house is safer. It’s just a little symbol I drew to make myself feel better about you leaving. Are you happy now?” Michael answered, watching the blue-eyed boy with such an intense look in his eyes and Luke put his hands up in defense. “It’s a protection rune. That’s the legend.”

“You wanted to protect me.”

“Sure.” Luke felt his heart skip a little but he ignored it because Michael is just a stranger – a _strange_ one to be exact. _Ha, wasn’t that ironic?_ He was completely out of the ordinary. Luke couldn't decide if he liked that or not.

“Well… Thanks.” Luke muttered, looking at the redhead. “So, about the door thing...”

“Haha, yeah, doors are so crazy.” The redhead changed the topic, sauntering closer to the brunet. “Anyway, I dunno why those two wanted to see the house, it’s just a big house, that’s all.”

“Michael,” Luke ordered, backing him up into the pillar because that was not what he wanted to talk about, and Michael pouted, actually _pouted_ , and _oh my god_ , that is as endearing as could be and Luke needed to quit thinking about it. Right now. “They saw the rune on my hand and they wanted to see the house after the rune had disappeared. Which, now that I think about it, is a little weird.”

Michael shrugged, continuing on his quest to be possibly as awkward as ever, and he pulled Luke closer to him, and the redhead clung onto the taller boy, looking at him with a smile. Immediately Luke melted into it, relaxing a little. “Yeah, it is a little weird – anyway, it’s fine. They were curious and I don’t really know what was up with the whole door thing, really—“

“Wait. What are you doing?” Luke asked, his face centimeters from the redhead’s and there was that same smug smile that appeared on his dark lips. “Are you flirting with me? You’re doing a pretty shit job, though I do appreciate the fact that you’re just leaning on me.”

The redhead pushed Luke back, ducking his head but Luke didn’t even need to see it to know that Michael was blushing as bright as his red hair. “No! Of course not.”

“Are you using magic on me? Ah, what do they call it? Love potion? That’s what it is, isn’t it—?“

“Magic is fake!” He snapped as he stared at the other boy, and Luke automatically knew that was the ending point for their little teasing moment. Great, he just had to ruin it. Now he was feeling a little tense, because he didn’t want the same thing to happen to whatever happened to his friends. “It would’ve been cool, though, but magic is fake.”

“O-Okay, okay.” Luke said, putting his hands up in defense as he tried to calm down the redhead. “Okay, magic is fake…” He agreed, even though there was so many questions floating through his head, especially with the door today and the candles last night – and also the fact that Michael just _disappeared_ quickly last night. The redhead looked at him and nodded his head, seemingly trying to convince not only Luke but also himself that it was true, and Luke felt super bad because that was his fault.

But, he didn’t try to pull him closer like his heart wanted him to do. He needed to stop having those feelings for this boy because he was just a stranger. A stranger he _fucking_ met _yesterday_.

Maybe he was Romeo. Well, if he was, he was being a pretty bad Romeo.

 _Fuck_.

Michael watched him carefully, a slight smile on his face. “S-Should we go back inside?”

Luke nodded his head. Maybe some cookies from Eloise would help.


	7. sept

Every time after hanging out with Michael and his grandmother at their house, Calum and Ashton were absolutely wanting the boy with the ever changing hair to come to the Hood house, or the Irwin house – or even Luke’s house – to hang out there.

He would always decline, though, shaking his head. He’d always make up some excuse to not go and the boyfriends would leave the porch and head back to their house Michael-less. But Ashton – and, eventually, Calum too – found him interesting and it made Luke a little possessive but he tried not to let it show whenever they headed toward Michael’s house.

That didn’t stop Luke from coming to the house in the woods by himself, however. Michael was his. He wasn’t going to let Calum or Ashton take that away from him.

Even Michael caught on to his possessiveness and would have him stay for sleepovers so much so they could talk and become closer to each other – and it made Michael’s grandmother so happy to see that he was actually talking to someone else besides her.

That always made Luke a little sad, because she didn’t even have to say it to know that she was thinking it, but he was flattered that it was _him_.

But every time Luke would leave the next day – and it became harder as a couple of months passed – Michael would always put that symbol, the protection rune on him and kiss his hand.

Luke would feel that same tingle go through his spine and he shivered, and Michael would give him a smile like he knew what was going on with him – and holy _fuck_ , his actions were so endearing once Luke knew that it was a protection rune.

Everything about Michael was endearing and Luke found that to be a bad sign, because he’s only known the boy for two months and yet he was already feeling his heart leap every time that Michael laughed.

Michael had invited Luke over for Halloween, and instead of helping his mother with setting up last minute decorations for Halloween, he was sneaking around with Michael, taking walks in the woods with him before his grandmother called him back in for a cake she had made.

Michael’s hair was orange, gaining him the nickname _pumpkin_ from Luke for the remainder of the hair color. Seeing him so happy to be called that really made the blond boy’s heart flutter, and it just wasn’t fair, but he wasn’t going to act upon it just yet.

He was supposed to fall in love with a pretty girl and get a good job, with a good house, three perfect children and a dog. Not the opposite, and so he couldn’t really come out and say, _hey, I’ve liked you since who knows when, we’ve known each other for two months, date me?_

No. He just couldn’t do that.

So, he was just going to do what Calum does with his algebra homework – shove it off to the side and forget about it, focusing on something else.

(Weird, he never thought he was ever going to compare his feelings to Calum’s lack of care for his algebra.)

But, of course, that didn’t really help since they had gotten closer to each other – and that meant picking on each other and sitting closer than what they normally would be like – and it was making Luke’s head and heart hurt.

Especially because he had spent Michael’s nineteenth birthday with him in November and it just made him feel even closer to him.

His grandmother had grown fond of him and his friends, due to the frequent stops by the ‘Three Musketeers’ (nicknamed by herself), but the three were fond of Eloise as well and so it was alright for them to visit almost every day.

And, that was all that really counted.

As long as Luke got to see Michael’s bright, happy smile every time he reappeared on his front porch, that was all he cared about anymore, really.

As December rolled in, Calum and Ashton came less and less, but that was because of the heavy snowfall the state was getting. Luke still made attempts, only because Michael had promised hot cocoa and warm, snuggly blankets by a fire – all made by his grandmother – and that sounded perfect for Luke.

So, he did the best he could to go, and he tried to pretend it was just for the cocoa, and not for Michael’s hot breath on his neck as the boy snuggled close to him, sitting on his lap.


	8. huit

The two boys were sitting on the couch after Michael had asked him to sleep over, with the promise of hot cocoa made by his grandmother. Of course, Luke couldn’t resist, and as the now dyed white-haired boy cuddled close to him, Luke looked out the window to see the snow falling outside, onto the trees and he took a sip of his steaming cocoa. It was hard to see the snow since it was getting dark, and Eloise had lit candles in the room so it would smell like gingerbread and other Christmas-y things.

“Let’s play questions.” Michael said after a moment of nothing, and Luke nodded, taking in the smell of chocolate and gingerbread that enveloped the whole house. Eloise was in her room, she was ever since she made the two hot chocolate, and there was nothing going on and it was peaceful.

Questions were the thing they bonded over the months, since they asked questions late at night or in the morning or even whenever Calum and Ashton were hanging out with them. It was also because they wanted to get to know each other, soak in as much information as they could.

Ever since then, they liked asking questions; favorite color (Michael's was red), various other favorites like animals and cake flavors; Luke told of his back story and how he had to move and his mother adopted his sister and he even told him how he met Calum and Ashton (but of course Michael never said a word about his back story).

Even if Luke wanted to bring up magic again, or the rune, or that time whenever he had blocked his friends from entering the house, he never did.

“How long have you lived here?” Luke asked, even if he knew the answer because he liked hearing stories about baby Michael.

“It’s my grandmother’s house,” the white-haired boy said with a roll of his eyes.

Luke caught sight of them as they focused back on Luke’s blue ones, and they looked almost a little clear, white in color – even though they were a pale green – and Luke knew it was because his hair was so light so it made it look like his irises were white and it was _beautiful_.

The blond smiled as he thought of a new nickname for Michael’s new color, because he looked like fresh fallen snow with his pale skin and white hair. His lips though, his dark pink lips looked so soft – and Luke needed to stop this. “I’ve lived here all my life.”

“I still think that’s so cool.” Luke admitted lamely and Michael laughed as he returned looking at the snow in the windows. Luke pulled the boy closer to him and the white-haired boy squeaked, staring at the boy with wide eyes, and immediately the candles around them blew out.

They were sitting there in the dark and Michael whispered out a, “s-sorry,” and Luke’s grip tightened on him.

“Why are you sorry? You didn’t do that.” Luke muttered and suddenly Michael looked like he got slapped in the face.

That was how he always looked whenever there was a slight hinting at magic.

Luke did have his suspicions, ever since he had met him on the very first night, but Michael was always the one pushing the thoughts away even if weird things were happening around him.

“Unless, you did do that?” he asked after a moment and Michael paused before moving to place down his cup of cocoa on the table beside them.

The white haired boy stood up, starting to walk away with no explanation. Luke did the same as the other boy, standing up and slamming down his cup as the other started to run up the stairs. The blond broke out into a sprint, turning the corner sharply and grabbing onto Michael’s leg, tripping them both as they were going up the stairs.

“Mikey, please, tell me what’s going on, what are you even doing? Why are you running away from me?”

“N-No, I don’t want to tell you.” Michael muttered, shaking his foot free from Luke’s grip and bolted up the stairs, trying to get back in his room -- the room that Luke was never allowed in, ever. No matter how many times he tried to go in there.

Luke was quick to his feet and he grabbed him, moving him away from the door to close it before pressing the white-haired boy against the dark wood.

“I don’t want to tell you,” he repeated before screaming it and screaming it a little louder after that, his voice cracking a little the louder he got and Luke immediately shushed him.

“Alright, alright! You don’t have to tell me…” Luke mumbled quietly, glancing around to make sure that Eloise hadn’t heard him shouting – and it would be pretty awkward if she did and left her room to see Michael pressed up against his door, very close to the blond. “Let’s just… Go back to the couch or sleep, or something. It’s getting dark out.”

Michael yawned, relaxing up against the door, and it was so adorable and the blond flicked his eyes from the other boy’s eyes to his lips, and _oh_ , they looked so soft and Luke couldn’t help but lean in a little.

Michael looked up at the boy after realizing he was looking at him and leaned in as well, but smirked as soon as he was close enough. “Sleep,” the other muttered, “but you’re—“

“Not allowed in your room, I know.” And just like that, the feeling of Luke wanting to kiss him was gone and Michael turned back, stealthily going into his room and shutting the dark wooden door in the blond’s face.

Luke sighed, going into their storage closet off to the side of Michael’s room and grabbing a pillow and a blanket, and headed down the stairs to sleep on the couch.


	9. neuf

There was a bit of laughter that echoed in the living room he was currently sleeping in and Luke was startled awake, and he stared at the mantle instead just to calm his nerves instead of looking over to the side, where he had heard the small, little laugh.

“Mikey…?” he tried, looking around the room.

He leaned over and grabbed his phone, flashing it over on the table. He saw a flash of Michael’s face, his lips curled into a smirk, and in one second the white-haired boy leaped onto the blond.

Luke screamed, because it was terrifying how he was just _there_ and sitting there like that, and he dropped his phone on the floor as the younger boy pounced onto him. “Michael, fucking Christ!”

Michael just laughed again as Luke tried to get his heart rate back to normal – he totally felt like he was just in a paranormal movie – and the white-haired boy nuzzled his head into his neck. “You wouldn’t even survive a ghost movie, let alone protect yourself, _Lukey_.”

“Haha, shut your mouth,” Luke mumbled and the boy on him looked him straight in the eyes. “Couldn’t sleep again?” he asked, eyebrows furrowed together in worry as the boy nodded.

“I just want to sleep next to you.”

_What? Me?_

Luke’s cheeks flushed and he nodded, wrapping his arms around Michael’s shoulders. “Alright then,” he said, running his fingers through the younger boy’s hair and the boy let out a little sound, a little mewl that made Luke pause. “…Michael.” he said, their faces closer to each other’s as they looked at the other.

“What?”

“Why did you run away from me?” Luke had to ask it, because he couldn’t admit to wanting to hear that little sound again, and so he compromised in his mind, settling on why he ran away from him earlier. That thought kept clouding his brain, but now that noise thing will be with him for a long time. It pissed him off. “Michael, please tell me why you ran away from me.” The white-haired boy paused, becoming still and Luke wondered if he was going to run away again.

“I-I can’t tell you.”

_There it was again. Another excuse._

“And why not?” Luke asked before he could really think about what he said and Michael sat up, glaring down at the other boy. “Look, I just want to know why you freaked out and ran up the stairs.”

“Because, I…” he took in a shaky breath, shaking his head no. “I-I can’t tell you.” his voice was quiet and Luke rubbed his thumb over the boy’s cheekbone. “I don’t trust you enough.”

Okay, that one hurt more than Luke wanted it to, and he removed his touch from Michael’s face. “Y-You… You don’t trust me enough?”

The boy started to shake as he sat on top of Luke, and his hands grabbed for the covers on Luke’s chest. “I-I can’t tell you, Luke, I can’t… I can’t tell you.” Luke paused before nodding his head. “Unless you admit something to me.”

“Oh? And what would that be?” Luke asked and Michael shook his head, looking at the windows instead of at him. Luke touched his face again, rubbing his cheek with his thumb and the white-haired boy glanced down at him and Luke felt his heart leap. This never meant to happen, and he most certainly didn’t expect it to happen, maybe.

“Never mind.” he retorted bitterly, smacking away at his wrist. “It doesn’t matter.” he started to stand up from his position. Luke grabbed his hands, making him look at him.

“I’m not going to chase you up the stairs, Mikey, and I will if I have to.”

Michael got that look from whenever Ashton and Calum tried to walk in the door the first time, and it scared the living shit out of Luke. He started to shake, but he kept a firm grip on his hands. Suddenly, there was a bang that emitted from the top of the stairs and Luke paused, looking at the white-haired boy.

“Michael, please tell me what is going on,” he said shakily, watching the boy with wide-eyes. He could hear his heart thumping in his ears. “Because that sound was scary--”

“You wouldn’t understand, let me go.” But Luke still insisted, holding onto him and Michael grumbled something under his breath, smacking away at his wrist again. “Luke, you wouldn’t believe me anyway, I’m not going to tell you.”

“Michael, please, just—“ Luke paused, suddenly shaking his head. “Fine, fine. If you don’t want to tell me, I’ll stop asking. But you said if I admit something to you, then you would tell me.”

Michael shivered a little, leaning down and hiding his face in the crook of the blond’s neck with a sigh, like he was just suddenly exhausted. Luke felt the other taking deep breaths, and it tickled and shot electricity up his spine every time the white-haired boy breathed. He wanted to ask what that thing was that he had to admit to him, but Luke soon realized after ten minutes of not talking that the boy had fallen asleep.

_Fuck._


	10. dix

As Luke woke up on the morning, he realized that Michael was still on top of him, cuddled up close to him under the blankets. Luke kissed his head before looking out the window, and he watched the snow falling, even huge clumps of it falling from the trees. That small little kiss was still not enough to satisfy himself, but he didn’t want to push this thing – whatever they were – too far.

Of course he had to have his heart leap for the strange boy – oh, no, why couldn’t it just be some girl at school? Or some other person? Why did it have to be the boy who strange things happened to that he had to fall in love with? Or was he even in love? Was it too early to tell? He was sure of it though, his heart hurt whenever he wasn't around him. _The boy with the white hair and clear, green orbs that could turn vicious in a blink of an eye… So beautiful._

Luke started to laugh at his own little joke about the eye thing and Michael stirred, mumbling something that definitely was not English under his breath.

“Uh… Mikey?” Luke asked, watching the younger boy lazily lift his head. Michael’s cheeks were flushed as soon as he realized he was still on top of him, but he didn’t make an attempt to move as the blush crawled to his ears and the back of his neck. “You alright there?”

“Y-Yeah,” he croaked out, ducking his head and hiding it in the crook of Luke’s neck again. That wasn’t really what he had meant, but he wrapped his arms around the waist his strange friend. “I’m fine.”

It was a little awkward how he was sitting, he was actually sitting up on the taller boy, and bending over to hide his face, but he didn’t seem to mind and so Luke repositioned his hands to be placed on his thighs instead.

“No, I mean, you like… Didn’t speak English there for a second, it was a little weird.”

“Sorry.”

It fell silent between the two and suddenly, Michael looked up at him and they looked at each other – and before Luke knew it, his lips were on the white-haired boy’s.

_What the hell?_

He was supposed to hide those feelings away for his friend, because he didn’t know how he would react – and to be honest, Luke didn’t really know how _he himself_ was going to react. But, now he was kissing him and there wasn’t any way that he could take it back, not that he even wanted to. But this kid he had known for two months now, so was that even enough time to start kissing him?

The kiss lasted longer than what Luke had thought it was going to be, but when Michael pulled away, his eyebrows furrowed and his eyes flashing that he didn’t expect that to happen, and Luke bit down on his bottom lip. Hard.

“Y-You kissed me.”

Unfortunately, Luke’s lip hadn’t been bloodied up like he wanted, and it made him a little upset because that was the thing he was trying to have happen so he could focus on more of the pain rather than the constant reminder of _oh my God, I kissed Michael._

“Y-You kissed me, oh my God, you kissed me.” Michael repeated and Luke nodded cautiously. _Please say something else besides that_ , _please_ , he begged as the white-haired boy fell silent.

“I didn’t mean to, you just looked… Cute. And so I kissed you.”

The blond was shaking a little, but not as badly as Michael was and he felt even worse because he knew he wasn’t good with people and yet he _still_ kissed him.

“Please say something.” he added after a moment of nothing between them and Michael finally looked back at him instead of watching the snow out the window.

“You kissed me.”

“Yes, I know I did, I know I kissed you, I like you, please say something else besides the fact that I kissed you…” Luke sighed and the white-haired boy leaned down, pressing a sweet kiss against his lips.

Was he really kissing back? Luke’s heart leaped in his chest, pleading for escape. Michael wrapped his arms around his neck and Luke had his hands on the boy’s thighs and _oh my God, this was really happening_ – he was _kissing_ him.

He pulled away afterwards, and Luke didn’t really care, he just whined at the loss of Michael’s lips on his own; the boy fucking _smirked_ at him and moved, stretching out his legs and lying down on top of him again and hiding his face in the crook of his neck.

Luke had completely forgotten about the white-haired boy not speaking English, and had replaced the thought with remembering the touch of Michael’s lips against his own.

A small little mumble was whispered into Luke’s ear. “I like you too.”

Luke’s heart sped up as he blushed.


	11. onze

Two days before Christmas arrived, Ashton, Luke and Calum wanted to make sure they could spend the night with Michael since Luke had school off. Luke hadn’t told them about what had happened the night they kissed, which was _so_ long ago (two weeks, really), and he didn’t really plan on it until he knew that he wanted to be with him. He had figured on multiple other occasions whenever the boy hung out with him that Michael was all ready for him to – _erm_ , let’s say, be with him whenever they go to sleep together – and not that Luke didn’t mind it, he just thought it needed some time before they rushed into anything. They’ve kissed more than Luke would like to admit, though, and sometimes it had turned a little deeper than he thought it would, but they were both okay with it.

He had explained that to the boy that he wanted to wait a little longer until things got intimate (because were they even dating?), and Michael, who really hadn’t understood it, nodded his head aimlessly and Luke pulled him close and that was how they fell asleep that night.

But as Ashton knocked on the door, Luke knew he had made up his mind. He was going to tell them for New Year’s, only because that seemed like a logical thing and plus, it was a new year and so it seemed fitting to him. He did like Michael a lot, he just needed a little bit more time (and to the New Year’s wasn’t really that much of time) to figure out if he loved him or not. The way his heart leapt whenever the white-haired boy smiled had given him a clue, but he also needed to know if he loved him as well or if it was just a little experiment thing.

The white-haired boy answered the door, a slight smile on his face and Luke immediately hugged the younger boy.

“Wow. That was an improvement.” Michael said like Luke had never done that before, even though on separate occasions he had. Luke rolled his eyes and Michael hummed something, stepping aside with Luke still hanging on to let the other two come in. _That was weird_ , Luke thought, but didn’t say anything about it. He knew bringing it up would get Michael in a temper-tantrum, and that wasn’t really want he wanted to have happen, so he let it slide because maybe he was just humming? Luke really didn’t know.

“I’m glad you guys are here,” Michael said after a moment, and Eloise came down the stairs, dressed in a festive, Christmas-y dress – with the same high collar and long sleeves that she would normally have on her usual dress – and she had her frizzy hair down and red lipstick coated her lips as she curled them up in a smile.

“Why aren’t you dressed, my little owl?” She asked and Ashton smiled, since he really liked the nickname his grandmother gave Michael.

“I am dressed, Grandmother.” He answered, gesturing to his skinny jeans and t-shirt.

“You’re not in your normal dress clothes -- and you’re not festive, either, Michael.” She said sternly, like this was really a thing that was affecting her – and knowing Eloise, it was. Luke thought of her like a second Ms. Frizzle, only a lot weirder and she didn’t have a Magic School Bus or a lizard as a pet. Well, maybe she did, Luke was never sure since he wasn’t allowed in her room.

“Excuse you,” he gestured to his reindeer socks as he wiggled his toes in them, “I am.” Eloise just laughed at her grandson’s words.

“I’ll be making something for our guests if you need me.” She cheered happily, walking off toward the kitchen and Michael looked at the three.

“Crazy old bat.”

“Michael, I heard that!” She shouted from the kitchen and he froze, looking over toward the direction of her voice. She just laughed again and he seemed to find the courage to move again, rolling his eyes and grabbing for Luke’s hand.

“Can we go in your room?” Calum asked, oblivious to the boys holding hands and obviously tired of the thought of hanging out downstairs when there was rooms he didn’t know about.

Calum was that kind of person who was curious all the time – if he were a cat, he would be dead – and he would try to find out secrets before the person was ready to tell them. It was just the way he was, he hated being out of the loop and didn’t really like having secrets being kept from him. Even though it’s annoying when he does it, he doesn’t do it very often – he’ll just ask you a whole bunch of questions and try to push it out of you instead.

He has been in some sort of defensive mode lately, since he thought the protection rune Luke came back with had some connection with the death of his mother.

Luke, on many occasions, told him he was crazy, because ever since then he has been a little on edge by Michael even though they got along and there wasn’t any reason to be, but Luke couldn’t really blame him though. Michael was a little weird, and even though Luke loved him, there were some things he couldn’t explain about him.

Michael just glared at the other coldly, his eyes actually looking like ice, and he shook his head. “No one is allowed in my basement, my room, or my grandmother’s room.”

“Well, why not?”

“Because I say so.”

The fight had been diffused then, because Calum just rolled his eyes and Michael mocked the other boy by imitating his action.

“Alright guys, let’s not get our panties in a bunch.” Luke muttered, walking out into the living room.

Michael stopped him and leaned up, whispering out into his ear, “How did you know I was wearing panties? Maybe they’re even for you, too?” And then he laughed, walking off in front of Luke and took a seat on the couch, a smirk decorating his face. Ashton laughed, picking up on what the other had whispered and walked past the blond, holding his boyfriend’s hand.

Luke stood there, his face completely red and he was a little impressed at how easy it was to make him blush like that. What if he wasn’t lying though? _Was Michael actually wearing panties? Oh my god, that’d be so hot._

“Luke.” Michael called.

“Y-Yeah?” he stuttered, taking a seat next to the white-haired boy and Michael snuggled up to him.

“Maybe I am.”

Luke roughly swallowed, clutching onto the boy’s hand. “Don’t tease me like that.” He muttered, gaining weird looks from his friends but he didn’t mind. “Anyway, who wants to play a game?”

“What kind of game?” Ashton asked and Luke shrugged.

“I thought Calum would have one?” Luke said questionably and the Kiwi boy shook his head.

“Hey, hold on. I have something, but it isn’t really a game?” Michael tried, standing up and the trio all followed him to the kitchen. He grabbed a piece of paper from a drawer, folding it and cutting it up into four equal parts. Calum and Luke were watching him, while Ashton had turned to Eloise to watch her make cupcakes instead.

Michael then cut the four parts into little squares.

“What are you doing?” Luke asked as the white-haired boy set down the scissors, taking out a pen from a drawer and writing out each of their names. “Alright, now I’m really confused—“

“Luke, please, shut up.” Michael grumbled, folding up the papers and placing them in a mixing bowl that Eloise hopefully didn’t need to use for the moment. He shuffled them up and pulled out a card. “Now, you all pick one.”

Calum mumbled something under his breath and picked one up, as did Ashton and eventually Luke.

“Okay, this is like a Secret Santa thing. I guess.” Michael shrugged his shoulder. “I don’t know if people do this or not.” Eloise smiled as she stirred up some chocolate batter, saying it was _a wonderful idea_.

“Ohh, okay. I got it.” Ashton smiled, opening up his card whenever Michael said to, but the smile went away as he folded up his card. “There are some days where I wish I could get myself, you know?”

“Why, who’d you get? Did you get Luke?” Calum teased and Ashton elbowed him in the ribs.

“No, I didn’t get Luke, Cal. I got you.”

“Hey! That was supposed to remain secret!” Calum feigned offense and Luke rolled his eyes and looked at his card, seeing the name _Ashton_ scrawled out on the paper. He sighed, slipping the paper in his pocket. He had really wished he had gotten Michael instead, but he shrugged it off, looking at the white-haired boy who seemed to light up like a light bulb.

Well, he seemed to get who he wanted.

“Well, it’s just that you’re so hard to shop for sometimes…" Ashton promptly ignored Calum when he said that _he wasn't hard to shop for_ and that _he was just being an arse_. "Whatever. Is there any rules?” Ashton asked and Michael shrugged.

“No, not really… I guess. I haven’t done it before, I just knew that’s what you people did.”

Calum glanced at the white-haired boy with an arched eyebrow and Michael looked a little nervous, swallowing roughly.

“I mean, I haven’t celebrated Christmas with other people before, especially a big group like you and so I just assumed that’s what people did.” Michael explained further as if he noticed that Calum caught onto his words, and Ashton seemed to not know what he had said, nor did he care, because he was busy watching Eloise again. Luke arched an eyebrow over at Calum, as if to say _stop it_ , and he turned and smiled at the shorter boy.

“Well, we’ll be glad to be spending it with you, Michael.” Luke said, wrapping an arm around the boy’s shoulder.


	12. douze

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im so sorry for this part omg. anyway, i forgot to mention!!!! go check out Muke_Cashton_Love because omg, she's so great. I love her youtube!AU fanfic. go check her out go goooo go ♥

Luke didn’t even know how it happened, but the trio had been sleeping downstairs for their sleepover, but then Luke awoke to screams echoing off the walls. Luke and Ashton stared at each other before looking over to where Calum was sleeping – only to find that he wasn’t there. They both knew that the screaming upstairs belonged to not only the Kiwi boy but also to Michael, and in an instant, Luke was to his feet and running up the stairs, Ashton following on his heels.

“Calum!” Ashton cried, and Luke was too busy screaming out Michael’s name to even care what Calum was doing.

“Get out!” Michael screamed, clutching onto the door handle as Luke neared the top of the stairs, and he saw a flash of red walls in his room. Before Michael was able to push Calum out, Luke was able to push both Calum and him inside, and Michael backed up to the far wall, wide-eyed and tears running down his face. He then stepped forward, getting close to Luke and shouting at him, “G-Get him out, Lu-Luke, get him out! He won't listen to me, get out!”

But Luke wasn’t really listening, he was instead standing in awe, looking at all the bookshelves full of old looking books with bounds falling apart, weird jars labeled Frog Eyes and other things along those lines, and even a little cauldron in the back, over a tiny stove. There were symbols over the place, even that little protection rune Luke had seen many times before, and even one that was too dangerous and scary to be normal. There was a lot of things that were too scary to be normal everywhere, and it made Luke’s heart hurt knowing that Michael had been lying to him. What if he was doing those spells on him all this time? What if Luke’s feelings for him weren’t even real, they were just spells used on him to get what Michael wanted?

That made him feel even worse.

“W-What is going on in here--?” Ashton cut in, peeking over Luke’s shoulder and paused. “Y-You’re a—“

“— _Witch_.” Calum finished, a scowl on his face and his eyebrows furrowed, and Luke hadn’t ever seen him like that before, and it was scarier than what Michael would do. Well, maybe not, because Michael could actually do something terrifying, unlike Calum.

Michael stumbled back, hitting his bed and his black cat that happened to be laying on it. Calum continued spitting out words angrily, and it made Luke’s heart sink into his stomach the more he did. Michael's expression changed from being a sad little teenager to a fucking _predator_ , like some big wild cat, and he looked like he could hunt Calum down. ”You’re the son the myth is talking about, that has to be you! You were abandoned by your mother because of what you were, you filthy beast.”

Luke stared around at the candles in the corner, looking at skulls decorating some of the bookshelves as paperweights, and he definitely now realized that Michael was dressed like his grandmother, the same dress, everything. That was the dress in the photographs. That was the witch dress.

He sighed, looking to the ground and noticing there was a wand on the floor and a few potion stains on the floor – probably from the potion Michael had placed on the bookshelf next to him.

“You’re disgusting, your kind killed my mother!” Calum spat and Ashton grabbed onto his hand, pulling him back toward him.

A pause. Silence filled the room and Luke watched Michael nervously as the candles blew out instantly. His green eyes seemed to glow in the dark and before Luke knew it, Michael started laughing.

 _Laughing_.

Michael was _fucking laughing_ , one of those scary, crazy high pitched laughing, and the air in the room got colder, and Luke heard Ashton’s teeth shatter along with his own.

“You’re _ridiculous_ , surely you’ve known it from the beginning, and yet you were still stupid enough to come here again and again!” Michael hissed, crossing his arms tightly across his chest.

Luke watched Calum out of the corner of his eye, watching the other back up a bit as Michael continued stepping toward him.

“If I’m so _disgusting_ , why are you here? _Get out_!” he screamed, stomping his foot like a child, hissing out something in a different language.

But the effect wasn’t so childish, it had caused the cat to hiss and growl like it had seen a dog and wanted to fight it, and Michael had caused Calum and Ashton to clutch onto their hearts.

Luke was unaffected though since the boy had drawn a rune on him earlier and he looked at Michael as the two others rushed out, past Luke and out the bedroom door. A few seconds later, though, he heard his name being called by Ashton and the sound of the front door closing, but he couldn’t move. His fists were clenched up, goosebumps on his arms forming due to the obvious temperature change. He just stood there, watching Michael and shaking.

Michael zoned in on the blond, his eyes still as cold as ice, but Luke was too nervous to move, to punch him, to shake the ever living shit out of him, anything. He couldn’t do anything but sit there and watch him, and look at him angrily.

“Why aren’t you running? I’m a witch, and apparently a disgusting one too. Why aren’t you joining your friends?” he hissed and came closer to Luke, who finally found enough strength to take a step back. “Because I’m such a helpful little witch, I was using magic to help them come inside that one day, every day they came over. But apparently now that they know, I’m a _disgusting_ little witch. An _evil_ little _witch_ , who doesn’t deserve anything.”

“Why didn’t you _fucking_ tell me?” Luke snapped suddenly and Michael’s eyes widened, his fists clenching and unclenching as he just stood there helplessly, like the roles had been reversed between them. “You’re a witch, you… You were the boy in the story. Your grandmother is a witch. Your mother left you.”

“Luke…” Michael voice sounded strained before he gathered up the nerve to hiss out, “you’re scared…” his tone faltered, watching the boy again, “just like them.” It took a moment and Luke didn’t move, and he saw the strong wall Michael had put up crumble down. The venom in his voice had died down and his scary nature seemed to fade away as he sat back down on the bed. “This is why I didn’t want you to know, Luke.”

“It’s too late for that now.” Luke grumbled, watching the boy on the bed. He wasn’t supposed to fall in love with a witch! _How embarrassing!_ Not to mention he could’ve been charming him or whatever – and that was probably why he wanted to always come back! “You’re a lying, little deceiving, horrible piece of shit and…”

But Luke couldn’t continue, because it hurt saying those things about Michael, _his_ Michael; he was happy to claim his heart, but now it could’ve just been a lie.

But something was telling him that no, it couldn’t be a lie. There was something about the two that made them special to each other, and it surely wasn’t magic. The blond looked back at the boy, his head low and Luke heard sobs from the white-haired boy, and those stupid sobs shook his heart and it was hard to swallow around the lump suddenly forming in his throat.

“L-Leave with them, then. Get the fuck out!” Michael hissed after a moment, a sob cutting him off and he whined, his kitten rubbing up against his arm. Luke really didn’t want to leave, but he knew his brain had to be in control for this situation and he backed up against the small dresser Michael had. The sound had shocked the other one, and he stared up at him wide-eyed, like he couldn’t believe Luke would actually take him up on the offer. “Y-You’re a-actually l-leaving me? But I love you...”

“You told me magic was fake, right? Who says love isn’t either?” Luke said helplessly, turning his back on the white-haired boy and walking out the door, slamming it behind him. His heart hurt as he heard the boy crying, smashing something against the door and yelling out a muffled _‘you thought it was fake?’_ and Luke’s heart felt like it had broke into a million pieces.

This was why he should fall in love with a normal girl, so that wouldn’t happen.

Luke walked down to the living room and grabbing Ashton’s and Calum’s things along with his own, and he walked out the front door. He didn’t know what Michael was calling fake, maybe the magic, or maybe it was the love part, and both made his head hurt. Luke left the house, leaving nothing behind beside his heart.


	13. treize

As soon as he felt the immediate rush of cold wind hit his skin, he shivered. He felt like crying along with the white-haired boy, because this was the first time in two months that he had left the house without a protection rune etched into his hand. So if the whole magic thing was real, did that mean the rune had worked too?

Michael actually wanted to protect him.

Thinking that made the blond feel worse and he choked back a whimper as he spotted the two huddled up against a tree. “What were you even doing in there anyway?” Luke snapped at the raven-haired boy and Calum held his hands up in defense. “Don’t give me that _shit_. He told you not to go in there! Why couldn’t you listen for _fucking_ once?”

Calum backed up against Ashton, leaning away from the taller boy. “Why are you getting so pissy at me? I was only trying to find out what the damn boy wanted for Christmas! And I figured looking in his room was a good idea! I wasn’t sneaking around in it though, as soon as I saw a book on witchcraft, everything clicked and he had woke up. It was all innocent-play, though, until I got upset.” Calum argued and Luke threw his backpack at him. “Why are you all upset? I figured it would be good for you to know as well!” Calum then stomped off without an answer, huffing and grumbling and kicking a tree out of anger.

“Because I…” Luke started to say after Calum moved away and Ashton studied him, which was a bit difficult to do in the dark, but yet he was spot on and he tilted his head, watching Luke pace back and forth.

“You like him.”

“Alright, Ash, this isn’t a time for you to be a know it all.” Luke hissed, turning to glare at the smaller blond and he puffed out his cheeks, crossing his arms and scowling. Luke hated seeing that look from him. He felt like a small child getting scolded whenever Ashton did that. “Okay! Sorry. Yes, I like him. A lot.”

“That’s why you weren’t affected by whatever dark magic he was doing that caused us to run out of his house. You have the rune on your arm. It didn’t affect you. He has a certain spot for you.” Ashton mumbled, tapping his chin as he continued to scowl at the tallest blond, and Luke ducked his head under his glare. “He likes you back.”

“ _Liked_.” Luke muttered. “He probably doesn’t now, since I practically ran out of his house, and now...” Luke started to scream out, “now he probably doesn’t want me in there!”

“Good riddance!” Calum shouted from the tree and Luke ran over to him, swatting his chest and causing the other to cough and cling onto it. “Ow! Be careful! I was a victim of witchcraft there!”

“ _Shut up_!” Ashton and Luke yelled at the same time, causing the other to jump, but he then ended up rolling his eyes and mumbling something Luke didn't care about under his breath.

“Can we please get away from this freak place? It’s creepier now that we know that bastard’s family killed my mother.” Calum grumbled and Ashton glared over at him.

“Shut the fuck up.” Ashton grumbled, hitting his chest again and Calum groaned, swatting both of the blonds back.

“Guys, shut up! Whatever! I’m cold, and everyone’s pissing me off, I would like to return to bed.” Luke yelled, diffusing the tiny fight that broke out between the two boyfriends, because he would much rather go home than listen to this. He wasn’t going to add that he was going to cry at home, either.

The two agreed hesitantly and Ashton rubbed Luke’s back the entire way home.


	14. quatorze

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is a short chapter D: sorry. to be honest i had this whole thing in one document, it's just that would be too long and overwhelming and i dont really feel like editing all of that on here, so i cut them up where i had put this: (.x.) which as you know is my cutoff, for like a time skip or whatever. so yeah, that's why some of these are really short. x

Luke couldn’t sleep that night. He had grown so used to sleeping on Michael’s couch almost every single night that he was uncomfortable in his own bed - and that was a bad sign.

Michael was a witch. A bloody witch, whose family maybe killed Calum's mum. Well, maybe, because Luke didn't want to believe it even though Calum told him that he had asked the white-haired boy, and he said that Michael said his grandfather did it. Luke tried to explain that that didn't make sense, males couldn't be witches (besides those special cases, like Michael). Of course, that just pissed Calum off, but Luke didn't want to believe that Michael had done it.

He didn't want to believe that Michael was a _witch_ , either, but there wasn't any way to disprove that. All of the weird things that had happened whenever he was close by Michael. All of the things he had in his room.

He was the boy whose mother left him.

Luke felt bad for leaving the white-haired boy alone in that house and he felt a sharp pain in his heart, but at the same time he didn’t know if Michael had been lying to him about everything he told him – especially whenever Michael had admitted he liked him.

The blond stared at his blank ceiling before glancing over at his windows, watching the moon be covered up by clouds and snowfall. It would’ve made a nice photograph, but Luke knew it would be too dark for his phone to capture and he sighed, turning over to sleep on his stomach. He groaned a little, realizing that he had left his lip ring in and he lazily took it out, setting it on the nightstand beside him. He couldn't sleep with that piece of metal in his mouth, could he? He's done it before. Hell, he's kissed Michael with it in and that was the best (but most awkward) feeling in the world.

Luke sighed, whining a bit to no one in particular. He needed to sleep. He was determined to sleep.

Or at least, try to sleep. He didn’t really know why he was losing sleep over this – maybe it was because Michael was a _witch_ , his _grandmother_ was a witch; or maybe it was the fact that he had fallen for the boy and it could’ve been just a trick all along.

(He hoped it wasn’t the latter.)

_Hell, maybe meeting a psycho-killer maniac would’ve been better than meeting Michael._

Luke let those words sink in his mind and he felt guilty for even _thinking_ of that, and he closed his eyes and tried to fall asleep – tried to keep Michael out of his mind.

He was just a strange friend who Luke wasn’t supposed to be head over heels in love with. He didn’t even know if he was head over heels in love with him, either, and that was the worst part -- he just felt like he was, he was so convinced that he was and _oh God_ , he could still feel the touch of Michael’s lips on his own.

He didn’t sleep a wink the rest of the night.


	15. quinze

Luke hadn’t even tried to make contact with Ashton or Calum (which was really bad, because he needed to get a present for Ashton) or Michael – the latter being the easiest since the witch didn’t have a phone – but it was Christmas Eve and he was going to spend it with his family (and hopefully not worry about anyone else but them) and he was going to like it.

That, however, didn’t last long with Calum’s constant text bombs and Ashton sending pictures over text of their families -- who were spending the Christmas holiday together -- and them sending him how much they miss him, and Liz kept giving him pointed looks during Christmas Eve dinner, and Luke sheepishly ducked his head and placed his phone in his lap. Delilah just giggled at the vibration sounds she kept hearing.

Luke was sure Liz was getting annoyed by it, and personally, he was too. He was grateful for the two getting together (because, them saying they both liked each other but didn't know the other did got really frustrating for Luke and he just told the two to ask each other out and get it over with). He was happy for them. Really. He was.

It was just a little unfair that they got to hang out together so much and that now, Luke couldn't even see Michael. He wanted to. Maybe. He wasn't too sure about seeing him and that made his heart hurt more than he had wanted it to.

While his adopted sister was talking about something only she would understand, something about a new doll, Luke was able to sneak a look at one of Ashton's texts, one marked with ' _ **look what cal got me! x** **he says theres more tho so i wonder what it is. at least it isnt pajama pants. they wouldnt stay on me for too long.**_ ' because he was curious to see what it was.

(He wasn't too curious about the second part, mainly because he didn't care -- he saw that Ashton sent a few seconds afterwards ' _ **that was cal and he sent that. i hate him. sorry for ruining your christmas innocence with his stupid babbling. but that tiger is so cute! i love it. we miss you x**_ ').

Ashton had a small stuffed white tiger and a big chapter book in his hand in the picture, and for a moment Luke thought the white fluff was Michael, but then he realized that _no_ , it was a stuffed animal and there would be no way that Calum would allow a _witch_ in his house.

Luke felt bad for Michael.


	16. seize

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *quietly sneaks in a lOT of cashton in the last chapter because why not*

Waking up on Christmas morning should’ve been fun – with Luke’s adopted sister Delilah jumping on his bed to wake up her nineteen year old brother – but it wasn’t since Luke kept thinking about the white-haired boy. He wondered what he was doing, since he left two days ago, but he woke up groggily thinking about how he could care less instead and it put a damper on his mood.

“Wake up, Luke!” Delilah cried happily, jumping near his face and he leaned over to tackle her. “Ah! Mommy! He’s got me!” Liz appeared in the doorway with a smile on her face, and Luke tried to match her expression, but it ended up being too forced and so he just forgot about trying to attempt it.

“Alright, alright, let’s go downstairs so Luke can have time to put on some clothes,” his mother said and Delilah hopped off the bed, following her mother to the living room. Luke sighed, getting up and putting on a shirt and sweatpants to cover up his boxers. He almost glanced over to see if Michael would be there – which, didn’t make any sense now that he thought about it on his way downstairs, because he had never slept by Michael in a bed before. They were always on the couch in his living room.

Luke went into the kitchen to make himself some coffee, because he really needed it. He hadn’t gotten much sleep over the two nights of being away from the white-haired boy, because even if he hated it, he missed the little witch.

 _Ah_ , it felt so weird thinking about calling him that.

Luke finished making coffee and walked into the living room, sitting in the chair closest to the lit up Christmas tree. “You hadn’t peeked, have you, Lilah?” Luke asked, smiling a bit as he did so. She shook her head, strands of her brown hair falling out of her braid she had from last night after her bath. “Ooh, okay, that’s a good thing. I didn’t want you to peek, and I’m sure Santa wouldn’t want you to peek either.”

“ _Nooo_ , Santa wouldn’t want me to peek even if I wanted to!” Delilah cried, giggling a little as she hugged a teddy bear to her chest, her giraffe pajamas matching the bear’s. Luke smiled at her, placing his hands around his cup of coffee. “Silly brother!”

Luke laughed, handing a present to her whenever his mother was ready and sitting down with a cup of coffee like her son. Luke wondered whenever his father was coming home, along with his brothers – they were supposed to be coming home soon too. His mother was always happier whenever Luke helped around the house or with his little sister since they were gone all of the time, and Luke was never really bothered by helping -- especially now, since his mother wouldn’t have time to ask about that special someone Luke was always hanging out with, because he would throw some excuse, like “Lilah needs someone to read to her, I’ll go do it!” and disappear before it got too weird and he got too blushy and red in the face. It was obvious that Liz knew about him -- or something of him -- and she would just joke around and tell him she thinks _it's cute_ he has a crush on him, but she would then tell him _she expects grandchildren_ , no matter where they come from.

Luke strived to be like that one person who was just so _gentle_ with kids.

He wanted kids.

He was just _good_ with kids, it was in his nature. It also didn’t help his heart that kids seemed to love him too, but it just made him happier every time he saw a cute little boy smiling at him in a restaurant. And in a moment, there was a flash of a thought – _kids with Michael_ – and he knew he had taken the whole crush thing to another level, one that made him feel worse about himself.

_Kids with Michael._

_Kids with Michael._

_Kids with Michael._

The sentence seemed to be stuck in his mind as Delilah ripped open the present Luke had handed her, and he tried to smile as she squealed, showing off a Barbie doll to her mother (like Liz hadn’t already seen it) and saying how she had wanted it so bad and she was so happy that Santa had heard.

Luke seemed to zone out what happened then as he looked around the teal colored room, decorated with white Christmas lights and other festive decorations. He felt a little sad, watching nothing as Delilah scared him, thrusting a present into his hands. “Here you go, Luke!” she smiled, grinning ear to ear.

“Thank you, lovely,” he said, looking to see who it was from (Santa, of course – he gave a pointed look to his mother) and tore into it. It was a new cologne, and it wasn’t really much but he gave a smile to Liz and opened up the box, taking the cap off the cologne and smelling it. It smelled like burnt cinnamon mixed with other yummy stuff, and Luke didn’t really want to know why his mother bought him something that smelled like perfume rather than cologne, but he still liked the smell of it. He spritzed a little on his wrists though and Delilah smiled, sitting by him with a smile on her face.

“Does it smell good?” she asked and Luke laughed, holding out his wrist for her. She giggled, scrunching up her nose. “That doesn’t smell good!”

“Ah, but that’s how awesome candies smell, and that's how yummy candles smell,” Luke mumbled, a smile creeping onto his face. He knew Delilah will eventually come to like the smell – on her own time or not – and so he simply put the bottle away, back in the box, and set it down on the small wood table beside him, next to his coffee. That’s how Michael’s house smelled every time Luke woke up with the smell of Eloise making cinnamon rolls.

Luke sighed.


	17. dix-sept

“Ah, there’s one more.” Liz said in more of a questioning tone as she peeked underneath the tree. She arched an eyebrow as Delilah practically lunged under the pine tree for it, reading who it’s from and giving it to Luke.

It was a black box, and all that it had on it was a red bow and a card, saying _To Luke_ on the front. He was able to open the card and it had two words on it: _I’m sorry_.

A flash of guilt washed over his heart, because that’s exactly who he expected it to be from, but he wasn’t so sure.

Liz watched curiously as Luke tore into the present, saving the card and placing it off by his coffee and array of other things he had gotten over the hour.

There was a box, and inside of it was a small pure white, fluffy penguin – his favorite animal.

There was a little heart charm on its little leather collar it had on and Luke almost wanted to cry right then and there. He had remembered he had told Michael his favorite animal in October, and that made him feel worse because he was so sure that Michael had picked the white penguin because of the witch’s hair color.

There was a small card that was placed beside the penguin in the box and Luke grabbed for it, reading it quickly and hiding it before his mother could ask what it was or what it said.

* * *

 

_Luke –_

_I’m sorry for not telling you that. I just didn’t know how you would react. Calum was only trying to find out what I wanted for Christmas or whatever, but I told him to stay out of my room – for that very reason. But if there was any thought to it – I didn’t use magic to get feelings for you. I don’t know if it was the same for you, if you even liked me in the first place, but I'm sure you did? At least I hope so, anyway, but there was no magic involved. I didn’t use any. Did I use magic on you in general though? Of course. The woods are a dangerous place. I wanted you to stay safe, the runes are very special and powerful. And this present, I had to send it to you with magic. I had to get this to you because, well, it seems like you won’t be coming back anytime soon. I had to give this to you though. I hope it makes it to you. If not, I'm screwed.  
_

_-your secret santa (but it’s pretty clear who this is though… I think I missed the point of secret Santa?)_

_p.s., I love you. Happy Holidays. (Also, my grandmother misses you.)_

* * *

 

Luke felt a claw squeeze his ribcage – and as dramatic as that seemed, it seemed correct since he felt like he couldn’t breathe.

Michael had used magic to send this to him – and Luke didn’t even know how that was possible, but then again, he wasn’t a witch.

And for the first time in the two days of knowing the white-haired boy’s secret, he didn’t feel bad anymore and he felt a little better that the little love that was blossoming between them hadn’t been used with magic.

As Delilah and his mother finished cleaning up the wrapping paper mess and made their way into the kitchen (Liz was still asking who gave the present to Luke) the blond headed upstairs after making up his mind, his penguin pressed up against his chest, getting dressed and getting ready to leave the house to venture out into the storm.


	18. dix-huit

After finally convincing his mother to let him go for an hour – two hours at the most – Luke made his way out into the snow, the white powder crunching under his boots as he made the familiar path down to Michael’s little wooded area by the main road. It took a while though, since the snowfall made everything worse and much more slippery than he had expected, but he wanted to make it. He had the penguin in his coat to protect it from the weather, and he was determined to make his way toward the white-haired boy’s house.

Finally making it – and Luke was glad he had asked to be gone for more than an hour, since it took around that amount of time to get there – he passed the _Visitors Welcome_ sign and made his way up into the woods, up to the house. There were icicles hanging from the roof and Luke was wary of them, since they looked vicious and deadly. He looked around for any sign of the black kitten, but the kitty wasn’t there and Luke hoped that he was inside, by a warm fire. At least, that was where Luke wanted to be at the current moment.

He walked up to the door, knocking on it and it took a minute – and Luke almost started to freak out, because _what if something happened to them?_ – but Eloise answered the door, a delighted smile on her face.

“Ah! Luke!” Eloise said excitedly, holding out her hands like she had finally found her lost son in the snowstorm. Luke could tell that she was refraining a hug. He smiled.

“Hello, Eloise. Is Michael here?” Luke asked, sounding as polite as he could even though his pearly whites were chattering.

“Yes, he is. He’s just upstairs. He hadn’t come out for a while, or at least while I’ve been awake. Maybe he's sleeping. You know, he’s a—“

“Night owl, I know.” Luke smiled and Eloise ushered him inside, telling him that he could make himself at home while she bakes. The blond took off his boots and Eloise took his jacket, placing it in the closet and the penguin Luke had tucked away in his coat fell to the floor.

“A penguin?” she asked before it clicked for her, and the grin on her face seemed to grow. “Ah, Michael picked that out yesterday. He was your Secret Santa. Michael!” she yelled, making her way back to the kitchen.

Luke nodded aimlessly, thanking her again for taking the coat, going to sit down on the couch.

Eloise waited a moment, her batter and spoon back in her hand before Luke could even count to twenty, and after that said moment, she walked to the stairs, yelling out, “Michael Gordon Clifford!”

Luke’s eyes widened at the full name and he grabbed a blanket, trying to warm himself up. It was maybe stupid to go during a small storm but he couldn’t help it. Michael said he wouldn’t come back and so he had to prove the small, feisty nineteen year old wrong.

The blond heard the grumble of Michael as he stomped down the stairs, and Luke couldn’t help but stand up, dropping the blanket and sneaking over to the other room so that the white-haired boy couldn’t see him. He wanted it to be a surprise – not that it wouldn’t be in the first place – but still.

Luke saw the boy standing there, in his uncomfortable-looking black dress and Luke figured he only dressed like a teen whenever people were around.

As Michael stood, scowling and crossing his arms, waiting for Eloise’s response, Luke came out from behind him and pounced on the younger boy.

He screamed out a string of cuss words, barely struggling to keep the weight of the taller boy up.

Luke had gotten off of him, turning him around and pulling the other boy close to him in a hug.

“Wh-wha—“ Michael stuttered before realizing who it was, mumbling out, “L-Luke… Wh-what are you doing here?”

“I’m back,” Luke said quietly, “and I want you to tell me everything.”

“N-no, you should be gone, you…” Michael glanced at him nervously, pulling away from him and Luke stood there, arching an eyebrow, suddenly confused by the boy’s actions. What was going on? Didn’t he want him back?

“But you told me you wanted me to come back.”

“I-I know, but—“

“So I’m here.” Luke blinked once, then twice. "Don't you want me here?"

Michael looked like he wanted to say something else, but nothing came out of his open mouth as he turned, starting to walk away, toward the living room.

Luke pouted, following after him. “Can we please talk about this—“

“Michael! There you are! I’ve made cookies!” Eloise interrupted them, smiling a bit as the old lady had cookie batter on her face. _Bad timing, Eloise..._ Luke thought, keeping his hands behind his back. Michael grumbled a bit to himself, like he was in a pissed off mood to begin with, but he turned back to Luke and took his hand hesitantly.

"Come on, then," Michael said shakily, leading the boy to the kitchen as if Luke hadn't been there before. "Let's go watch cookies in the oven."

Luke nodded, smiling at the boy and pouting when he didn't smile back. He was being cautious, Luke could tell, and it was probably because of that fight they had. Luke wasn’t scared of him, though. Not like Calum and Ashton were. Sure, he had been a bit scared at some points in their friendship, but it was always overridden with the fact that his heart leaped out of his chest every time Michael laughed.

And Luke, well, he was determined to make that known to the white-haired boy.


	19. dix-neuf

“So, you’re a witch.” Luke muttered as the two were taking a walk in the snow. It was quiet between them for a while, until Luke told him that he wasn't afraid of him and he kept repeating it over and over until Michael had to hit the boy's shoulder. The white-haired boy had reluctantly agreed to taking a walk, since it seemed to calm him down and being next to Luke was one of the things he wanted for the holidays -- regardless of him saying otherwise.

Luke knew he had wanted to be next to him, because Luke wanted to be next to the white-haired boy just as much. Being away from him was starting to get on his nerves and he couldn't go two minutes without thinking about him, which was odd and bizarre to him but he didn't care. 

The blond seemed to catch on though, because Luke was secretly planning on taking the white-haired boy back to his house. He wanted him to go only because he wanted him to stay the night and meet his mother so she would finally know who Luke was talking about.

But, finally, after those days without seeing him, finally, after striving for this moment, the two boys had their fingers entwined as they walked and Luke felt a sort of balance settle down within him.

"Yes, I am a witch. My grandmother's a witch. My mum left."

Luke shook his head, looking up at the gray sky. They had full stomachs as well – sugar cookies shaped like all things Christmas were the best in Luke’s opinion – and Michael was content in walking in the now died down storm. He had his white hair tucked away in a cute little black beanie, except for his bangs that kept sticking out and poking out of the decorated beanie, and he had a black scarf and coat on to match.

“And you’re wearing, like, some kind of dress thing or whatever whenever I last saw you. I mean, not that there's anything wrong with that, it's a very pretty dress - uh, I mean--”

Michael fumbled with Luke’s present, his penguin he had given to him, and pressed it against his chest as a comforting mechanism like Luke had done earlier. Michael hadn’t changed from the same black dress he was wearing from two days ago – or maybe it was a separate one since he could have multiple ones, but Luke didn’t mind it. It actually looked a little cute on him. Why he was wearing it, he had no idea.

“Don't worry about it, I don't care what you call it." Michael said and Luke sighed, relieved that he didn't call him out on it. "My family is really into black dresses and it’s been tradition to sleep in it and be in it and do spells in it and yadda, yadda, yadda. Kinda like, get up, wash your clothes, put on a new dress and get to work. You know, all that stuff.” Michael answered, shrugging a shoulder. “I’ve gotten used to it so it doesn’t really bother me anymore. It’s just kind of the thing I’ve grown up on. Witches are stereotypically supposed to wear black dresses and shit, right? But our family just liked these high-collared dresses and, yeah, that kind of stuff. It’s just tradition. But of course, I couldn’t wear it whenever you or Ashton or Calum were hanging out with me.”

Luke listened, his grip tightening on the other boy’s hand as he smiled. “I think it looks nice on you.” And, before he could stop himself, he said, “you’re like an Oreo." _A very delicious one at that_. Luke's cheeks heated up once he thought that, but it was true.

“I don’t want to even know how you came across that simile.” Michael said without missing a beat, a smile creeping onto his face as he turned to look at the blond walking beside him. “But whatever. Yeah, I’m a witch.” he said quietly, looking down at his feet as the edges of his black dress got covered in snow. He grumbled.

"Anyway, would you like to come to my house? My mum would love to meet you..." Luke tried and he watched as the white-haired boy stopped walking, and their eyes connected. "Do you think that would be okay?"

"I-I... I c-can try..." he said quietly and Luke felt his heart flutter. “And, Luke... About the whole witch thing, I'm... I'm sorry for hiding it from you, I just didn’t know how you would react. I didn’t know if you would leave, like you did, or if something else were to happen, and I don’t even know why you’re still here—“

Luke noticed that Michael was rambling and his grip tightened on his hand, but the blond just smiled and shrugged a shoulder. “As long as you don’t hurt me, I don’t see any reason to be scared of you. My mother will love you.”

“And Calum and Ashton?” he asked and Luke shrugged once more.

“I bet they’ll get over it, and if not – then so what? I understand why Calum was so upset though, but I’m sure he’ll eventually get over it… Maybe. He’s probably just scared but as long as it’s clear you don’t hurt him I’m sure you two will be at least civil.” Luke explained, looking up at the sky as snow fell. “I mean, _you_ didn’t kill his mother.”

“I didn’t.” Michael grumbled, kicking a pile of snow from the pebble sidewalk. “My grandfather did. He wasn’t even a witch, either!”

“Then he has no reason to hate you then, it wasn’t your fault.” Luke comforted, even though he was a bit uneasy talking about that topic. So, he switched it. “But, I’m not scared of you, and if you think you being a witch is going to drive me away, it’s not.”

“I know, you've told me... But, honestly. Why?” Michael asked quietly, refusing to look at the blond and he stopped walking, making the white-haired boy stop walking as well.

“Because I love you too.”

Luke could see Michael ignore how hot his cheeks got, and he pulled him in, pressing a kiss to his dark lips.

Maybe liking a strange boy who was anything but ordinary wasn’t such a bad thing.


	20. vingt

Luke honestly couldn’t believe that Michael had actually agreed to go to his house and they made their way to the brick house, Luke entering with a smile on his face. He had felt bad for taking the boy away from his safety place, but he was glad that he was here with him. The two kicked their boots off and took their coats, hats, scarves and gloves off, heading to the living room where Delilah stood, staring at the white-haired boy with a cautious look in her eyes.

Michael straightened his back, not really sure what to do with the small child in front of him and Luke watched him, a small smile teasing at his lips as the white-haired boy shifted a little closer to him.

Luke’s mother joined the group and stood in front of Luke, Delilah standing behind her and tugging on her pant leg.

“Michael, this is Delilah. My six year old sister.” Luke introduced as Michael seemed to imitate the little girl, starting to hide behind the blond.

“H-Hi.” Michael mumbled quietly as Delilah did the same. Michael’s eyes flickered up to Luke’s mother and he now hid completely behind Luke, watching his mother from behind him.

“Michael, this is my mother. Mum, this is Michael. He’s the one that gave me the penguin. He’s my friend – the one I stayed at that one night and all those other nights, remember? This is him.” Luke explained, stepping to the side and smiling a bit as he touched Michael’s hips with his hands, trying to get the boy to come out from behind him. He hoped his mum wouldn't say something embarrassing, like once how he spent all night talking about him to her, even though Luke could never recall that happening. Knowing her, she would though.

Liz gave a smile to the white-haired boy and Luke caught sight of the boy doing the same and imitating his mother.

“Hello,” he greeted and she did the same. Luckily she didn't say that Luke had a gigantic crush on him, like he expected.

“Can he stay the night, mom?” Luke asked like he was thirteen again and Liz nodded, keeping a wary eye on her son, and Luke immediately blushed, looking at his feet.

He wasn't planning on doing anything, how _dare_ she think like that.

Though, it was pretty funny and while he wasn't thinking about doing it tonight, he wanted to. But, that was for another day. Liz smiled one last time before heading back to the kitchen after a few moments.

Luke looked out one of the windows and realized that it was only one PM, but even then everything was a little dark because of the winter storm and so it threw his schedule off. “So does that mean I can take him upstairs?”

“Yes.” Liz added from the kitchen as Delilah giggled, following after her mother. Luke smirked at the other boy, taking his hand and heading upstairs.

Luke heard Delilah asking him if Michael wanted to play Barbies, but the blond said, "not tonight, love, maybe soon?" and Michael smiled weakly. 

As the two made it into Luke’s room, Luke’s phone vibrated in his jean pocket and he pulled out the phone, noticing that Calum had texted him wondering if he could come over. Luke sighed, wanting the two to come over and talk with Michael, but his heart fought with his brain and the blond ended up typing out: _**can’t. gotta hang with the fam. what about you? aren’t you supposed to be hanging out with yours AND ashtons, man? i mean its xmas after all.**_

Feeling content, Luke threw his phone down on the bed before he flopped down on his said bed, and he watched Michael look around the room curiously and cautiously. It was a little amusing before he watched the white-haired boy have a look of panic on his face. Suddenly he was pulling out a piece of paper, scribbling something out and folding it up into a simple owl, opening up the window. He blew on it and the bird came to life, flapping its wings – and off it was, and Michael sighed, closing the window again.

“That was my maths homework,” Luke muttered as he looked over on his desk. His stupid maths teacher had given him homework over the break, and he was trying to finish it so he could enjoy Christmas – but it seemed like that wasn’t an option anymore.

“Sorry.”

“Eh, it’s whatever. I probably wasn’t going to finish it anyway.” Luke shrugged a shoulder, looking at the boy in black. “Come ‘ere, you,” he said with a smile on his face, his lip ring out and on the nightstand since he had been too lazy to put it in this morning.

The boy in black sauntered over to him, making sure not to trip over the fabric of the dress as he climbed into Luke’s arms. Michael rested his head on the boy’s chest, staring at the boy’s phone as his fingers played with the blond’s hairline. Luke’s hair was flat instead of styled and gelled upwards like it typically was, and Michael liked it that way since it was much easier to run his fingers through it.

Michael looked as the phone lit up, seeing the name _trouble boy #1_ on the screen. "Who is that?" he asked and Luke picked up the phone, opening it up and reading the message.

 _ **damn dude. that's true, maybe tomorrow?**_ the text read.

"Calum," Luke answered mindlessly, typing out a _**yeah sure man, lookin forward to it**_ , and clicking on the sunglasses emoji before placing his phone back down. It was quiet between the two of them and Luke could hear his mum busying herself around downstairs, probably preparing Christmas dinner.

“I hope they forgive me,” Michael muttered suddenly, shifting and placing his head in the crook of Luke’s neck instead. Luke hummed, stroking the white-haired boy’s back as he stared up at the ceiling. It suddenly clicked in Luke’s mind who he was talking about and he kissed the fabric of the boy’s dress, up by the high-collar, trying to calm him down.

“I’m sure they will,” he mumbled, smiling up at the ceiling. "They'll forgive you in no time."


	21. vingt-et-un

Sleeping with Michael was always Luke’s favorite thing since he met the kid – but that was at Michael’s house, not at his. Not that he didn’t enjoy having the boy here, because he loved it, but it was just that Michael wasn’t used to it at all and he didn’t seem to be having an easy time falling asleep. With the white-haired boy sleeping at Luke’s house, Michael was restless and he kicked his covers off in the middle of the night until Luke woke up, holding onto the boy and wrapping his arms around him, shushing him and cooing out comforting little things to him.

“H-Hey, hey, it’s alright, I’m here,” Luke said, even though he really didn’t know why he was saying those words but they just seemed to flow out of him like a waterfall and he didn’t plan on stopping. "It's okay, you're safe here."

Michael's eyes were on him now and Luke had to refrain from kissing him then and there. He smiled at him, to let the boy know that there wasn't anything wrong and that he's safe and Michael sighed. 

Instead of instantly going back to sleep, or trying to get back to sleep, he shivered (probably because he was in a short sleeved shirt – which happened to be Luke’s – and his boxers, and the shivering was probably due to the fact Luke always slept with the fan on) and whimpered and made these pathetic sounds that Luke didn't even know Michael was capable of making.

It was a little heartbreaking to hear him sound like that, even if he was homesick.

Luke kissed his temples, hoping that would calm down the boy. The blond then leaned over, grabbed the blankets and his favorite black comforter that had fallen to the floor and he placed them over the two of them, pulling the boy close to him. 

It fortunately did calm him down, however, and the older boy let out a tiny sigh as he snuggled up next to the boy.

“Luke,” Michael said as Luke stared at the clock, wondering how in the hell it was two in the morning. “Luke,” he tried again and the younger boy looked at him with a lazy smile on his face. "Your mum's dinner was good."

Luke laughed. "I'm glad you think so, I'll have to tell her that, she'd be pleased."

"Do you think she likes me?" Michael asked after a moment and Luke nodded, kissing the boy's cheek. "Luke," he mumbled after kissing him. "Luke," he said again, leaning in to kiss him once more before pulling away, and he repeated his name once more.

“Yeah?”

“Do you really love me?” the white-haired boy asked and Luke nodded his head, moving him closer to his body to keep him warm. Michael hid his face again, away from Luke and he pouted because he wanted Michael to keep looking at him so he could truly know how much he had meant to him.

“Of course I do. I mean, it’s a little strange how I fell for you in two months, but… It happened.” Luke answered before Michael nodded slightly, surprisingly okay with the short little confession. Luke continued, even though he wanted Michael to look at him. “Which is weird, but I’m perfectly fine with it. As long as I’m here with you, anything could really happen and I’d be okay with it.”

Michael seemed to melt when he heard Luke’s words, and he gave a satisfied purr to let the blond know that he had been listening and he had appreciated hearing it. “Now go to sleep, yeah? Or at least try, my little kitty-cat.” Luke blushed saying that, since he had been thinking of that nickname for a while but hadn't really had the time to call him that. Of course he had to say it then, though, but it was really embarrassing and Luke tried to pretend like it didn't happen, but Michael snickered.

"'Little kitty-cat'? How long were you thinking of that one? Though, I suppose it's better than Oreo." Michael said and Luke grumbled a bit.

"Just go to bed."

And really, how could Michael ever deny that after hearing the sweet nickname? He curled up against the blond boy, hiding his face away like he always did and closed his eyes, his breathing falling evenly.

Around five AM however, Luke heard next to him, “You know, I thought you would’ve stopped drooling in your sleep, but you still do,” and the blond groaned. Michael was up, and so that meant that Luke didn’t really know if the white-haired boy actually got some sleep or not. He opened his eyes lazily, rubbing them and he stared at the boy across from him. He had moved away from him while he was sleeping? Luke pouted, stretching a little and arching his back.

“What are you doing up?”

“I woke up around three-thirty and I haven’t been able to sleep since.” Michael answered back and Luke could tell that he was honest, because he was starting to see darker circles under his eyes.

“What time is it?” Luke mumbled out as he turned to look at the luminous clock, seeing it was _5:07 AM_. “Ugh, Mikey, come on…” he glanced over at the boy again, holding out his hand for the white-haired boy to take. “Come lay down next to me.”

Luke almost wanted to say that he was worried about him, but Michael obliged and stretched out his limbs, laying down next to the blond. “You’re so boring.”

At first, Luke would’ve been upset upon hearing that, but it was five in the morning and so he didn’t really care if he was boring. “And you’re supposed to be asleep,” he argued, kissing the boy’s head as the white-haired boy jutted out his lip in a pout. “Come on, Michael, sleep.”

“Just don’t drool on me,” Michael added softly, a smirk quickly replacing the pout and Luke narrowed his eyes at the boy, laughing bitterly before rolling away from him.

“Someday, somehow, I’m gonna get that fixed and then you’re going to be so fuckin' sad because you can’t make fun of me for it ever again,” Luke pouted, staring at his wall in front of him. 

“Uh-huh.”

“Go to sleep, Michael.”

“Can’t.”

Luke rolled back over to face the boy, who wore a small frown on his face. “What’s keeping you up?”

“Them.” Michael stared at the blond’s phone laying on the opposite side of Luke, next to him and Luke sighed, pulling the other closer to him. "I'm sorry."

“They’ll get over it, and you all will be friends again, I promise.” Luke bit back the urge to say, _but you have me_. "Don't be sorry, Michael. It's okay. I already told you, you're gonna be okay and you three will be friends again."

“Friends.” Michael mumbled as he hid his face, but Luke could tell in his voice that he was happy, giddy about the word. That made him feel a little sad, because he thought about what his grandmother said about him not having anyone to really hang out with. He kissed the white-haired boy’s head.

“Yeah, that’s right. Friends.” Luke responded quietly. “Friends.”

What were _they_ , though?

Luke was more focused on trying to figure out if they actually were boyfriends or best friends who really weren’t best friends anymore. They hadn’t come out and announced it to each other yet, but it was bothering Luke a little. And while Michael tried to sleep, Luke didn’t. He was too busy watching the other boy squirm around and hide his face from him, like he was embarrassed that he couldn't get to sleep. But that made it a little bit more endearing, and it didn't matter to Luke that he couldn't sleep anymore, as long as he got to lazily watch Michael it was fine. He didn't want him to freak out like he did before, and so he wrapped his arms around the boy, making him be still and the blond rested his chin on his head.

"Please, just sleep, please." Luke quietly said to nothing in particular.


	22. vingt-deux

At nine AM, Luke finally gathered up the nerve to tell Michael that his two friends were coming here and that they were having breakfast (and that he might’ve let it slip his mind that the witch was here, too, with him). He told him how last night Calum was the first one to reply back with a smiley face and a time for whenever he’d be over with his boyfriend, and Luke watched as Michael nervously picked up the same dress he wore yesterday and walked into Luke’s closet to change. "They're coming over here?" he asked through the door and Luke hummed loud enough for him to hear as a response. He stared at his phone, perching his feet up on the wood siding of his bed. 

Luke felt bad that the boy didn’t want to wear his sweatpants – but the blond said nothing about it since they had already talked about the dress being tradition and how Michael was used to it. Plus, Michael was ready to confront the two about the situation and Luke had to hand it to him, since that seemed like a tough thing for the witch to do since he wasn’t very good with people.

Luke got dressed after Michael exited the closet, leaving the door open and shutting off the light. The blond started putting in his lip ring, and almost immediately he thought of the feeling of kissing Michael. He figured he had to put them in sooner or later, because as weird as it was, he liked kissing Michael with them in. It was a little weird feeling, but it was still a little exhilarating (but that could just be because he was kissing Michael).

Luke knew Michael was watching as he aimlessly put the ring in, on the left side of his mouth, and the blond smirked, standing up after finishing with the piercings. “Doesn’t that get a little annoying?” Luke asked, gesturing to the dress and the white-haired boy shrugged, biting at his dark-pink lips.

“Already told you what I think about it,” he muttered, sitting down on the boy’s bed. “Doesn’t it get a little annoying putting the lip piercing in every morning?”

_Touch é, Michael. Touché._

Luke felt a little underdressed and so he shouldn’t really say much, since he was in comfy sweatpants, a festive t-shirt and a beanie – which, typically was his dress code for weekends and holiday breaks -- but still. To see him in his dress again was a little too much for Luke and he leaned over, kissing him, whispering out against his mouth that he was so cute in that dress. Michael pushed him away, rolling his eyes and looking away from him, stating coldly how he wasn't cute, he was punk rock and didn't give a shit what Luke thought. 

“Okay, babe. Whatever you say. I still think you look adorable.” Luke smiled, wiggled his toes in his socks and sighed, placing an arm over the boy's shoulders to keep him close to him. “Your hair is so soft.” Luke noted, running his fingers through the pale boy’s hair.

“You’re ridiculous.” Michael muttered but didn’t push him away and he ended up relaxing into his touch. Luke noticed that once he had done that, Michael’s nervousness withered away, and he was secretly glad for it. He knew that Calum made Michael nervous, and he also knew that he wasn't going to let Calum know that, but the fact that he had manage to calm the boy down made everything a little bit better about the situation. Well, at least for Luke, it did. He wasn't too sure how Michael felt about it, but at this point Michael was physically relaxed and that was probably the closest Luke was going to get.

Now, all they had to do was wait for the two to come over for breakfast.

Luke’s mother always made too much food anyway.


	23. vingt-trois

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for calum's nastiness in this. blarg. unu

As soon as the two saw Calum’s face in the doorway, Luke knew that Michael had stepped behind the nineteen year old, and even with that he knew the white-haired boy had blown his cover that he was indeed here and that he had spent the night here. But, Luke had still opened up the door, even though he knew something was coming as soon as Calum took notice that Michael was here.

“I thought you never left the woods, _witch_.” Calum barked, standing outside on the porch as Ashton rolled his eyes, taking a deep breath, tugging on Calum’s hand, and, without his boyfriend following, he walked into the house. "You've even got the dress on from when I caught you. Wow."

“Excuse him, he’s still been in a pissy mood since that time when we left.” Ashton sighed, walking past Luke and the white-haired boy, and Ashton smiled at him to let him know that he wasn’t angry at him. Or, at least that was what Luke thought happened, because Michael loosened his grip on Luke’s hand whenever Ashton was near him. "Get in here, Calum, quit being an arse."

Luke had, however, known that Michael mumbled out _you remind me strangely of my grandmother_ , but it was unknown to Ashton who just smiled before glaring at his boyfriend. Luke didn't want to know how Ashton was related to Eloise, but whatever made Michael happy. 

“You’re being ridiculous. Come the fuck inside, it’s cold out.” he muttered before taking his coat off.

“I’m not going inside with that witch—“

“I never did anything to you.” Michael’s voice cracked, and Luke winced because he had promised they’d be friends again and so far, it didn’t seem like that was going to happen.

Michael just wanted friends. That’s all.

“My grandfather did it. It wasn’t me and it wasn’t my kind of people, either. He just went crazy and blamed it on us, probably -- actually, I know he did -- and it just added to our bad reputation. I don't even know your mother. I don't know what she did. Don't know what she looked like.” Michael crossed his arms. “I’m sorry your mother was killed, but I know you’re also probably sick of being told that people are sorry for your loss.”

Luke turned back to see that the white-haired boy had completely stepped into the view of Calum, who stood still on the porch. "She was a witch hunter," the Kiwi boy said, staring at Michael and Luke saw Michael's jaw clench. 

The white-haired boy looked like he had something else tucked up in his sleeve, something that could’ve really either gotten Calum pissed or sympathetic, and finally he responded with, “You know, I don’t have a mother either.”

“Yours left. Mine died.”

“Alright, but that doesn’t mean that your situation is worse, Calum.” Luke barked, motioning for the boy to come inside. “Now, come on or I’ll slam the door in your face. It’s getting cold and I can hear Delilah muttering something about closing the door from the couch. Now get inside.”

Calum crossed his arms and walked inside, taking off his boots and Luke shut the door quietly. Michael backed up as Calum stepped forward onto the rug to remove his coat, sliding the black material off of his shoulders.

Luke sighed and grabbed it from him, going to the closet it to put it in with his boyfriend’s jacket. “Alright, I’m in now,” Calum grumbled.

“And nothing has happened to you – could you imagine that?” Luke muttered, starting to walk off to the kitchen but the Kiwi boy cleared his throat, glancing at the white-haired boy, and Luke turned back to look at them – just to make sure that nothing really happened. Luke sighed, crossing his arms over his chest.

“So, what made you decide to leave the house?” Calum asked casually, but Luke could sense there was an underlying tone of venom laced within it, and Luke glanced toward Ashton who just simply rolled his eyes behind his glasses. Michael shrugged, pointing at Luke and he sighed once more, and he could almost feel his ribs crack from all the strenuous sighing. His lungs were sure to collapse sooner or later.

(He didn’t know which one sounded more painful and he certainly didn’t want to find out which one was either.)

“Luke wanted me over for a sleepover.” he turned to the blond, who paled at the sight of Calum arching an eyebrow.

“Now, hold on, wait – you slept here? In this house?” Calum asked as Ashton finally crossed his arms, looking at the Kiwi boy with a small glare in his eyes. "Wow. And you didn't poison Luke? Or did some freaky spell on him? Wow. Incredible. I'm impressed."

"Calum!" Ashton barked, his grip on the handrail by the stairs tightening. "Don't push it."

 _Geez, Calum…_ Luke thought and he was also pretty sure that Calum’s boyfriend was thinking the same thing.

Michael trembled, hiding his hands behind his back, and Luke wondered why he wasn’t responding back with some witty response like he normally would’ve. Michael was making it clear that he certainly had something to say to him, Luke was sure of it, but he wondered why he wasn’t saying it until he saw Delilah peeping out from the couch, giggling about something regardless of the tension in the hallway.

_He was trying to refrain himself for Delilah._

_He didn’t want to say anything bad in front of her._

_He probably also didn’t want to use magic in front of her or Calum, and it all made a little sense_ , Luke thought, but he was soon interrupted by a huff of the Kiwi boy.

Though, Luke knew that deep down somewhere, there was a witty retort to this kind of situation and Michael was itching to use it.

It got a little quiet between the two before Michael muttered out, “Y-Yes, I slept here. I am Luke’s boyfriend, after all.”

Boom.

Suddenly, Luke wondered what it would’ve felt like if his lungs _did_ collapse earlier.

Well, he technically wouldn’t be able to feel it, would he? Either way, it would surely feel better than the now awkward silence that enveloped between the four in the hallway, because did Michael really just say that out loud?

Luke didn’t think that they were dating (though, the idea was nice, and let’s be honest – the two had gotten a bit friendlier than best friends) but it was still a shock for the snow-colored haired boy to say. It was a bit exhilarating, because all this time Luke thought they weren’t dating. Or, he wasn't really sure what they were doing.

“Y-You’re dating him?”

“Well, it was kind of obvious.”

Luke turned to Michael, who he had expected saying that, but was surprised whenever the green-eyed boy was watching Ashton. The curly-haired boy had kind of mumbled it, but it still was able to gain the attention from the three other boys in front of him. “Well, I mean, he was always snuggling up to you, always stepping on me on the floor of his living room to get to you. He was super excited whenever he got you for Secret Santa, too.”

“You peeked?” Michael asked and Ashton smiled, almost laughed as he nodded his head.

“Well, yeah, it was hard not too. You could barely contain a smile. That’s why I’m okay with Michael being a wi— a you-know-what. And that’s why I think it’s stupid how you can’t get over the fact that Michael didn’t even kill your mum. Like, I completely get it, yeah, but I mean...” Ashton said, remembering that Delilah was on the couch and in earshot. “As long as he doesn’t hurt Luke, then I’m okay with it because I know how much Luke adores Michael.”

The two boys went red in their cheeks as he said that and Ashton laughed.

“See? What did I tell you? You two are just adorable. But like I said, I’m okay with him being that way as long as he doesn’t hurt Luke.” Ashton said, keeping his eyes trained on his boyfriend.

That was what Luke had thought, that was what he had said to Michael. _Great minds think alike, I suppose._

“But he killed my mum, Ashton, there’s no way that you could possibly think that he wouldn’t hurt Luke! It’s what his people do!” Calum tried to protest, obviously angry that his own boyfriend and his own best friend would betray him like that, but Luke knew Ashton had to side with him.

It was his own love-life anyway, and Luke knew Ashton was ninety-nine percent sure that Michael himself didn’t kill Calum’s mother. Luke understood that Ashton still felt a little twinge of hate toward Michael’s family line for that they had done to his boyfriend’s mother – but he didn’t hate him for it.

Luke heard Delilah start to whimper as Michael stepped back a bit, his eyes widened.

“I-I didn’t kill her! It was my grandfather--"

"Doesn't fucking matter. He was a witch, and he killed her."

"--which would make sense if he was a witch! Honestly, do you know nothing? He was normal! Psychopathic, maybe, but normal!”

Michael shouted that louder than he probably meant to and that meant Liz came into the hallway, a shocked look on her face. The white-haired boy backed up into Luke’s chest, trying to hide himself as his mother asked what was going on.

But it didn’t stop Michael from muttering out, “so he wasn’t like me. You’re normal, like him, why don’t you kill me instead? You’ve killed my kind a lot more than we’ve killed yours. So why don’t you just do it now, and get it over with? Since it’s apparently _what your people do_.” There was a slight hiss that laced in with his words, and Calum paused, looking at the white-haired boy silently.

“What’s this about being normal?” Liz asked with an arched eyebrow, intertwining into the conversation and Luke was glad she did.

“Nothing, Mum,” Luke mumbled to his mother, glancing at his sister on the couch. “I think Lilah wants your attention though. We can take this upstairs if we’re bothering anyone.”

“N-No, I just didn’t know they were coming over…” the woman sighed, muttering something about how she was glad she made extra batter and Luke decided to actually go through with what he was saying and grabbed Michael’s wrist, taking him upstairs after agreeing with his mother that he was glad she made extra batter too.

Calum, however, decided not to follow, but Ashton grabbed onto his wrist and tugged him up the stairs, something that Luke was grateful for, because he surely wasn't going to do it.


	24. vingt-quatre

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well that was fun. enjoy! i will update tboaf/heart made of metal hopefully soon. x also, goooo go check out Muke_Cashton_Love because she's awesome. I know I've said that before but for real. she's awesome. gO check her out. ♥

“Look, I’m sorry about your mother…” Michael apologized, taking a seat on Luke’s bed and Calum glared at him, and the white-haired boy shifted uncomfortably under his gaze. “I don’t know what else to fucking say. I’ve said sorry – I’ve even said sorry for saying sorry – and I can’t change the past so I don’t know what else I’m supposed to do.”

For once, Calum let out a tired sigh and sat on Luke’s desk, watching the white-haired boy play with the ends of the tight, slim-fitting sleeves of his long-sleeved dress. And, with a glare from his boyfriend and Luke, he muttered out, “it’s alright. I guess. It was just a shock to me because your family killed mine and it’s just a rough topic for me okay? I guess I was wrong for assuming it was you and accusing you of it, but if Ashton can forgive you then I will try to because Luke likes you a lot and... Yeah. So, I know you don't want to hear it but I'm sorry.”

“I know. I'm sorry for scaring you. And hurting you. I really am.” Michael mumbled, returning to play with his hands. He didn't turn to look at Calum. “But I love Luke a lot, so... I'm glad that you're willing to forgive me.”

“I know.” Calum also mumbled, scratching the back of his neck and looking down at his feet as they swung back and forth. “I know. And I know you love Luke. It’s pretty obvious – apparently –“ he glared back at his boyfriend “—but I guess I was just oblivious, like Ashton says I always am. Like the arsehole he is.” It was silent between the four before Calum piped up with, “and if you do hurt him I’ll kick your ass. Burn down your house maybe. I will hurt you for hurting him. Okay? Even if we are friends. I don't care.”

The thought made the witch’s skin pale, and he whimpered a bit because Calum actually sounded serious – and though he made himself sound serious, he knew the latter idea wouldn’t be a good thing to have on his record. Luke coughed, trying to urge the Kiwi boy to say that he was kidding, that he was joking and he wouldn't actually burn his house down or kill him, and Calum seemed to catch on.

“I’m joking about burning your house down, y’know,” he said after a moment, and Ashton swatted his chest, muttering out _idiot_ underneath his breath.

“U-Uh, o-okay…” Michael mumbled and tapped his chin before a smile grew on his face. “And I… I like you guys, too, so I’m glad you’re joking about burning my house down. Because then I would--” he paused before shaking his head. "Never mind, I wouldn't hurt you..." 

“Hmm, such love. You love Luke but you only _like_ us. I see who your favorite is, Michael.” Calum suddenly teased and Luke was a little impressed, even though he could tell the black-haired boy was still pissed. Maybe Calum just liked seeing the white-haired boy smile, just like Luke did? Or maybe he was just trying to please Luke. Either way, he was being nice and that's all that mattered. “I’m joking, I’m joking. I like you.”

There were a few giggles and silence and a few jokes that had been exchanged before Liz called the four down for breakfast and Calum had been a little quiet, but that was alright because Luke knew that it would take time for their friendship to fully heal again.

The two raced down the stairs, trying to beat each other to the bottom (Ashton won), and before Michael could walk down them as well, Luke stopped him and tugged on the skirt of his dress. “H-Hey,” he mumbled, scratching the back of his head whenever he had gotten the boy’s attention. Michael kept his eyes on him, his hands grabbing onto Luke's shirt. “So, are we a thing now?”

The question obviously threw Michael off his inner balance and Luke could feel his cheeks burning. Oh God, why did he ask that? Why did he ask that? “I thought we were?” Michael answered, a smirk growing across his lips.

A blush crept onto Luke’s cheeks before he could stop it from happening.

"Unless you don't want to?"

“No! No, I mean, yes. I mean, ugh, I want to be with you, we're together. Yeah. Yeah, we are. I just wanted to check.” Luke fumbled with his sentences but focused on trying to say that yes, he wanted to, and he felt Michael staring at him with an amused smile on his face.

"Okay, good."

Luke entwined their hands together, pulling him closer to him and leaned in for a short kiss, even though it was ruined by Calum shouting, "come on, lovebirds! Breakfast is ready!" Luke definitely had to hold himself back from giving Calum the middle finger, and they pulled apart and walking down the stairs together.

Maybe dating a witch wasn’t so bad after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys! So sorry that this was really long and it was (maybe?) really jumbled together so sorry for that! But wow it’s like 25,000+ words omg. :o holy crap that was long. i'll get back to uploading tboaf/heart made of metal soon. i promise.


End file.
